Free SHS: Ignore Fin. Minister’s “Dead Opinion” – Hamid

By Justice Dzido On Aug 1, 2018

Information Minister, Dr. Mustapha Hamid

Information Minister Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid has asked the public to ignore Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta’s opinion that the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy be reviewed to target the poor while the rich are made to pay for their children’s second-cycle education.

According to him, the vision of President Nana Akufo-Addo is a free-for-all SHS programme and that is what government will pursue.

The Minister told journalists at the Regional Coordinating Council in Tamale on Tuesday, 31 July 2018 that government will not reverse the policy.

“The Finance Minister’s opinion does not stand in the face of the president’s vision. It’s not going to happen. The Finance minister doesn’t have a locus. His opinion is dead…it is not even in his bosom to bring an educational matter to cabinet. It is only the education minister who can, so he can only go and lobby the education minister to come to parliament and there is no cabinet decision that must go contrary to the NPP manifesto, finished.”

Mr. Hamid continued, “You don’t need to belabour the point…the person whose vision we are driving is the vision of the president of the Republic of Ghana and the president of the Republic of Ghana’s vision is that every child who goes to secondary should go the secondary for free.

Mr. Ofori Atta in an interview with Accra based Citi TV said following the numerous challenges that has bedeviled the Free SHS policy, government must withdraw from making it free for all and allow wealthy parents and guardians who can afford to fully fund the education of their children.

“I can’t take my child to Achimota or Odorgonno and then leave him or her and drive away and Ken Ofori-Atta not pay anything while I can pay for 10 people. … You need to get the data to then be discriminatory in how and who pays and who doesn’t pay”, he said.

Speaking about the next academic year, he said: “You actually going to have, maybe, 180,000 more people but it’s so important, you’d rather make that mistake – if it is a mistake – to get everybody in the system for the nation to then begin to have a conversation and say: ‘OK, this is good for us because we want that human capital and to a certain level, but maybe let’s begin to adjust it this way’”

But Mr Hamid maintained that: “If we go into another election and we want to revise the manifesto that’s another matter but now the 2016 manifesto says that we are implementing Free SHS for rich children and for poor children and that is what it shall be.”