NDC will collapse Free SHS for all – Oppong Nkrumah

It is described as a “grand scheme” of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to collapse or cannibalise the extremely popular Free Senior High School (Free SHS).

Quoting from an official document authored by former Education Minister, Mrs Betty Mould Iddrisu, the Vice Chairman of the 2024 New Patriotic Party (NPP) Manifesto Committee and Minister for Works & Housing, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, MP, said that John Mahama’s intention, if elected, is to make access to Free SHS and Free TVET no longer universal and free for all.

The NDC, according to Mr Oppong Nkrumah, plans to introduce means testing to eligibility to free secondary education in Ghana. Mr Oppong Nkrumah warns that this would be a disaster for the country as it would lead to corruption and discrimination, which may require parents having very good “connections” with senior government officials to stand any hope of qualification.

In a ten-minute video clip, the second in the series of 8, he makes the case for young Ghanaians to vote on December 7 and vote for Dr Bawumia. First posted on the Minister’s You Tube page Wednesday, 23 days to the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections – Oppong Nkrumah, who is also the NPP Member of Parliament for Ofoase-Ayirebi, reminded Ghanaians that the NDC has as far back as 2012 and even before that, demonstrated their disdain for Free SHS.

“I want to proof to you today that the NDC does not believe in Free SHS. I want to show you the NDC’s blue print for financing education. It is called the ‘Education Strategic Plan’. It was under the signature of Betty Mould Iddrisu who was Minister of Education at the time. It is online, google it and download it yourself and go to page 29 and I will show you something.

He read Page 29 to make the case that the NDC had never been in touch with the concerns and aspirations of parents struggling to educate their wards to the secondary level.

In fact, the NDC is even proposing that the children of poor Ghanaians must be encouraged to work hard hard labour, like cooking and cleaning, to provide them with the income to fund their secondary education.

“This is the NDC’s real belief. According to the NDC, most of the students who attend public senior high secondary education actually come from private schools and therefore, they are not poor, these are not my words, they are the NDC’s words and they have gone on to say that such children from poor and needy homes “should not receive boarding subsidies.”

He stressed, “They go on further to say that, however, it is important to subsidise those that they classify as needy students especially, those from the Northern and other hard to reach areas. How are they going to do this? They

“Another way they want to do this is by giving loans to needy students and the third way that they want to do is almost laughable, is what they call students self help schemes, where students will be cooking and cleaning to be able to support their education.

“I am not kidding you; this is in the education strategic plan published in February 2012 by the NDC under the signature of Betty Mould Iddrisu, Educational Minister at the time, google it and read it,” the NPP MP further remarked.

NDC grand scheme exposed

To shed more light on this grand scheme of the NDC, Oppong Nkrumah explained that what the NDC strategic plan means is that “their true belief is people who go to the Free senior high school are not poor and therefore, you should separate what they call the needy and let those that they believe can afford pay and those that they separate and call the needy, they will give them some subsidy for boarding.”

Kojo went on further to point out that “they [the NDC] are going to do this by means testing and that means that they are going to apply a mechanism to say, you, you should pay, but this one should not pay.

“What that will actually end up meaning is that if you don’t have connections to NDC officials, if you don’t have protocol allocations, you are not going to get “Free Senior High School.” That is the true intendment of the NDC policy,” the Works and Housing Minister said.

“The other way they want to do it is by what they call student self help schemes where a student would have to do some cooking or cleaning to be able to support their education. Not my words, it is in their strategic plan,” Kojo Oppong Nkrumah added.

 

Reporting by Wilberforce Asare, Asaase Radio in Accra