I’ll address Free SHS concerns if elected president again – Mahama

Former president and flagbearer of National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama if elected president in the upcoming election to be held on December 7 says challenges confronting the Free Senior High School policy will be addressed.

Addressing representatives of teacher unions at a gathering, the NDC 2024 presidential candidate said he would collaborate with the government teachers to improve the country’s education sector with effective policies

Outlining his vision for the educational sector, the former president said he would hold a stakeholder forum on education in his first 100 days as president to solicit inputs on how to improve and deliver quality education.

“Within the first 100 days of me becoming president, we will hold a stakeholder dialogue on education. It will have as part of its focus the implementational bottlenecks of the Free SHS, but it is also going to deal with how we can improve financing and teaching and learning at the basic school level and so at that stakeholder’s engagement

NAGRAT, GNAT, parents, students, educational experts, everybody is going to be there and we are going to have a discussion on access, on equity, on affordability, and on financing our educational system,” he told the teacher unions.

In related news, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) following his government’s introduction of the Free Senior High School programme in 2017 has promised to improve upon the flagship education policy.

In a televised national address at the UPSA auditorium monitored by Thisterm.com on February 7, 2023, the Vice-President said the country recorded the highest-ever enrollment level in SHS, with around 500,000 students in 2023.

Outlining his vision for the country if elected President in the 2024 general election, he described the performance of students who wrote the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in 2023 as the best since 2015.

“We have also implemented Free SHS with an increase in enrollment from 800,000 in 2016 to 1.4 million by 2022. The year 2023 has recorded the highest-ever level of enrollment in Senior High School of around 500,000 students

The performance of the students at WASSCE is also the best since 2015 and we have also achieved gender parity. Under my government, Free SHS will continue, and we will improve upon it,” the NPP presidential candidate stated.