‘Free SHS has come to stay’ – Mahama

• Posted on August 15, 2019
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Former President John Dramani Mahama says he will not cancel the free Senior High School (SHS) educational policy on his return to power.

According to Mr Mahama, “free SHS has come to stay.”

Speaking at the opening of the 27th Annual Presidential delegates congress of the Ghana National Union of Technical Students in Kumasi on Wednesday [August 14, 2019],

Mr Mahama said if he should come back into office, he would hold stakeholders meeting in his first three months.

The stakeholders, he said would include parents, teachers and experts to remove all the bottlenecks associated with the current free SHS policy.

“Indeed, no government either present or in the future can reverse the policy because it is captured in our 1992 constitution,” former President Mahama said at the meeting which was a convocation of all the technical universities to elect new leaders to shape the vision of the Union.

Make it enjoyable

Adding, Former President Mahama said: “I am determined to make the free SHS a beneficial learning experience more than the current miserable condition our children are facing under Nana Akufo-Addo.”

“We have an obligation to make it qualitative, enjoyable experience for our children,” he added.

He said the NDC has a plan of completing the remaining of the 200 community day schools and build extra ones at high population density areas including the Zongos and under several areas to bring secondary education to the doorsteps of the ordinary Ghanaian.

TVET

Mr Mahama said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) if voted into power again will continue the clear pathway to make Technical Vocational Education Training (TVET) an alternative of first choice for students and not for “rejected students.”

“Indeed, I dare say that we need our best and brightest students to take to the path of TVET if we are to transform this country,” he said.

Mr Mahama said in that way, it will help correct the erroneous impression that technical universities were meant for dropouts and rejected students.
He urged the present government to help complete the process of upgrading the Bolgatanga and Wa polytechnics into technical universities per the original plan.

The Interim Vice-Chancellor of the Kumasi Technical University, Prof Michael Agbesi Acheampong, urged the government to complete the auditing process that will lead to the scaling up of all the remaining polytechnics to be upgraded to technical universities.

He said since the process was being modelled after the German Technical University, it was important that the equipment assessment was completed to enable them to be upgraded quickly.

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