It’s not necessary to always find fault with Free SHS – Nana Akomea to Kwesi Pratt

• Kwesi Pratt says Ghana should look beyond the West Africa sub-region when it comes to the quality of education

• According to him, most of the countries in the sub-region are facing challenges that impede their ability to deliver quality education

• Nana Akomea however disagrees



Read full article/> Nana Akomea, a leading member of the New Patriotic Party, NPP, clashed with veteran journalist Kwesi Pratt Jnr over the latter’s view on the successes chalked by Ghana in the 2020 West Africa Secondary School Certificate Examination, WASSCE.

The two who were panelists on the Tuesday, May 8, 2021 edition of Peace FM’s Kokrokoo program engaged in some heated exchanges after Kwesi Pratt attempted to downplay the significance of the WASSCE record set by Ghana as the best in the sub-region.

Pratt said it is not ideal for the Ghana to compare itself to other countries in the sub-region as most of them are confronted with enormous challenges in their education sector.

Using Nigeria as an example, Pratt said that the abduction of students and other issues in the country negatively affect their chances of succeeding in exams.

But Nana Akomea rebuffed his assertions, noting that Pratt cannot use the abduction issue to make a general statement about the state of education in Nigeria.

He told Pratt to be candid and applaud the government on certain aspects of the Free SHS which have been successful.

“Nigeria has a population of over 200 million. How many of them are in North East? How many are in the Niger Delta. If you do that, it’s like you are always trying way to find fault. It’s not necessary. "It is this same mindset that makes someone say that the result was due to leakage and teachers. If there’s something positive about Free SHS you must say it. In Ghana we’ve been talking about constraints about Free SHS.”

Pratt in response said: “we don’t have a situation where students who go to school are abducted for ransom. We don’t have a situation where there is an armed campaign against the north of Nigeria."

Nana Akomea interjected “that is in the North of the Nigeria. You don’t have that in the South. You don’t have that in the Yoruba and Igbo lands. You have that in the north. How many Nigerians are in the north. The result we achieved is a positive one, lets acknowledge it and appreciate our challenges.”

The Free SHS issue is back in the news following recent comments by former Minister of Education, Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang.

Professor Opoku-Agyemang in an interview with Woezor TV said the student's performance could have been due to other negative factors rather than the Free SHS programme.

She said: “... they went and wrote the exams we heard of the leakage of the exams, we heard of invigilators being compromised, we heard many things and we also saw the students come out and speak about, ‘no this is not what we were told will happen,’ now these students have As and we are happy? It is up to us.”