Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has urged people of the Bono Region and all Ghanaians in general to treat former President John Dramani Mahama’s pledge to expand the Free Senior High School (SHS) with doubt, wondering how he can promise to expand something he was against in the run-up to the 2016 elections.
Former President John Mahama and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) were against making Senior High School (SHS) free for all students at once and favoured a progressive policy that targeted the needy until such a time that the nation will have adequate resources to make it free for every student.
But following the implementation of the policy in 2017 by the Akufo-Addo administration, Mr Mahama has promised to not only continue with the policy if he wins power in the 2020 general elections, but to expand it to cover private schools among others.
For Dr Bawumia, John Mahama and the NDC cannot be trusted on their promise since from the outset, they were vociferous in their criticism against the policy
“How can you say you will expand Free SHS when you did not believe in it? …Mahama said Free SHS is a hoax. He said it was 419 and he said it is impossible. But after President Akufo-Addo successfully implemented it for the benefit of Ghanaians, he is now going round telling Ghanaians that he will expand it to private schools if Ghanaians vote for him,” Dr Bawumia said in an interview with Sunyani-based Nimdie FM
Dr Bawumia recalled that the former President had been categorical that he would not invest such huge funds on free SHS and that his present u-turn on the policy smacks of inconsistency on his part.
Commenting on the challenges of the free SHS policy, Dr Bawumia said that so much infrastructure was built put in place to end congestion and the double track system in various schools, disclosing that some schools are set to end the double track soon.
He therefore urged Ghanaians to ignore the promises of John Mahama and vote for the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) so that it can continue with the free SHS and other good policies that are of great benefit to the people.
