Education policy advocates, Africa Education Watch, is seeking clarification from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) regarding its intentions to reassess the free Senior High School (SHS) policy.
Executive Secretary of the organization, Kofi Asare, contends that the NDC’s presidential candidate, John Dramani Mahama, does not require a stakeholder engagement before making decisions about changes to the free SHS policy.
This request is a response to John Mahama’s commitment to spearheading a stakeholder engagement to evaluate the policy’s implementation within the first 100 days of office assumption, provided he wins the national presidential elections later in the year.
In an interview with Citi News, Kofi Asare argues that most stakeholders have already voiced their concerns about the policy, rendering any additional engagement unnecessary.
“So what will the NDC do specifically about the policy? That is what we want to hear from them, and not a stakeholder forum. If you tell me you will hold a stakeholder forum, then you yourself don’t appreciate what must change or what must not change, what must happen to improve the policy. Come up with what any keen observer, participant, analyst in the education space, including the minority leaders in the education sector will appreciate.”
“They do not believe in holding a stakeholder forum to discuss what we have done on our policy. The stakeholders have raised these concerns in the last seven years. NDC is corporate of these concerns. They should tell us what they will do,” he said.
Meanwhile, Education Minister, Dr. Yaw Adutwum had also recently addressed John Mahama’s statement, where he was of the view that the free SHS policy requires no review as he believes the policy simply needs targeted improvements. The minister’s statement faced a lot of backlash from various critics in the sector, with the general emphasis in the alleged reluctance to have the policy reviewed.
