Govt considers calls for Free SHS policy review as political – Apaak

Deputy Ranking Member of Parliament’s Education Committee, Dr Clement Abasinaab Apaak says the government has refused to review the Free Senior High School program because it considers calls for the Free SHS policy review politically motivated.

Apaak’s comment comes after the Minister for Education, Dr Yaw Adutwum in an interview monitored by Thisterm.com said the Free SHS policy does not need a review as proposed by some individuals but rather some improvement.

“Anything that you do, there will be areas that need improvements. [On] improvements we can look to train teachers and make sure that teachers are well prepared to teach for better learning outcomes,” Adutwum said in the interview.

But the e Member of Parliament for Builsa South, Upper East Region in a statement shared with Ghana News Agency said the government is refusing to review the policy because John Dramani Mahama was the first to make the call.

“The challenges exposed by seven years of implementing the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) policy are numerous and complex. To deal with these challenges exhaustively requires a review,” the statement said.

It continued that “We are dealing with the future of our nation and ought to adopt a comprehensive approach, not ‘tot-tot. The review was a formal assessment that would give stakeholders pointers on what needed to be improved

The Minister of Education owes Ghanaians an apology for defining review as meaning cancel… Review doesn’t mean cancel

All stakeholders but the Minister of Education and other government appointees have called for a review. Even external partners such as the IMF have called for a review of the policy.”

In any case, is it not standard practice to review programmes and policies from time to time? The position the Minister and other government officials have taken is purely political. It’s not supported by literature on policy implementation or best practices,” the statement said.

Dr Apaak in his statement said a National Democratic Congress government under the leadership of Mr Mahama, would do the needful as called for by stakeholders and review the policy, with the intent to improve it holistically.

“As announced by the NDC Flag bearer, a national stakeholders forum would be called to assess the policy and make recommendations for improvements. This is undoubtedly the way to go,” the Education Committee Member stated.