Public Relations Officer (PRO) at the Ministry of Education, Akwasi Kwarteng, has said the Ministry has dealt with all concerns raised about its flagship “Free SHS” policy and that there is no need for a review as suggested by the Former President of the Republic, John Dramani Mahama.
Mr. Mahama making some clarifications about his position on the policy, stated that he is not against it, but after every programme implementation, there has to be a review by stakeholders to improve upon areas with deficiencies.
“Parents, teachers, educational experts, students, everybody should come and let’s identify what the issues are, so that we can come together with a consensus that this is where we want to go with our educational system and then government can make the corrections,” Mr. Mahama remarked.
Reacting to the comment, Mr. Kwarteng said on 3FM’s midday news, which was monitored by Angelonline.com.gh, that there is nothing they have not done about the policy to ensure that it keeps running effectively and efficiently.
“What do you want to see happen that we have not done?” he quizzed, adding, “the policy [Free SHS] is free: students are not paying for fees, they are not paying for textbooks, they are not paying for utilities.”
According to him, the suggestions by Mr. Mahama was rather a reflection of his desire to scrap the policy than what he meant superficially.
“His posture, conduct and utterances [past and present] shows that what he means by review is bothering on cost. he is probably going to cancel it because he has always been against the fact that education should actually be free in this context” the PRO said conclusively.
Meanwhile when asked about the challenges with food supply to various schools across then country, he dismissed the claim saying the Ministry has not received any official complaints on it.
He however admitted that there have been issues regarding food quality and quantity which they have accepted “in good faith.”
