A dominant argument on the airwaves recently is who, between former President John Dramani Mahama, and President Nana Akufo Addo, has actually introduced the Free SHS policy in Ghana. In my view however, while I think the argument is necessary for our history, and the records, it is not what is most important for those who have graduated from the fSHS policy, and even for those who are still in SHS, as well as for many of our other youth of Ghana. These people need jobs more than anything else after school and their training.
THE RECORDS:
But just for the records, it is important for all to understand that the basis, or starting point for making Senior High School free in Ghana is the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, whose writing was organized, guided, supervised, and done by intellectuals, activists, supporters, and admirers of NDC and its antecedent PNDC, and which was promulgated basically by NDC politicians, whose vision for Ghana, the Constitution largely reflects.
The Constitution:
Article 25(1)(b) of the 1992 Constitution provides as follows:
(1). All persons shall have the right to equal educational opportunities and facilities and with a view to achieving the full realisation of that right — (b) secondary education in its different forms, including technical and vocational education, shall be made generally available and accessible to all by every appropriate means, and in particular, by the progressive introduction of free education.
H.E. John Mahama’s Initiatives:
Pursuant to the article 25(1)(b) of the 1992 Constitution, the records have it that Prez. Mahama had actually launched a Progressively Free Secondary Education in Ghana before the first term of the 2015/16 academic year. Besides available video recordings showing the launch in a ceremony well-attended by the chiefs and people of Ghana, and ably accompanied by his then Minister for Education, who is now his running mate, Prof. Jane Nana Opoku Agyemang, there is also adequate information on the initiative in official public documents.
In the 2016 Mid-year Budget Review, presented to the Parliament of Ghana on behalf of Prez. Mahama, and which was approved by the Parliament, it was stated that the progressive free secondary education had commenced in the first-term of the 2015\16 academic year with 340,488 day students in public Senior High Schools across the country benefitting. The document stated further that the program was to be expanded to cover about 120,000 boarding students in the 2016\17 academic year.
Also, in the 2017 Budget, presented by Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta on behalf of President Nana Akufo Addo, it was captured that President Mahama had spent GH₵25.96 million in the implementation of the progressively free SHS in the 2015\16 academic year, and another GH₵71.91 million as subsidies to Senior High Schools.
Besides these official documents, there are media publications, online and in print, of President Akufo Addo, UNESCO, and others having lauded President Mahama for starting the progressively free secondary education.
Main Difference in Nana Addo and John Mahama’s Implementation:
The difference is very simple. While Prez. Mahama believed in the spirit and text of the 1992 Constitution that free secondary education must be rolled out progressively in order to avoid the many potential difficulties that might be too costly for the nation, parents, and the students, Nana Akufo Addo on the other hand thought the program must be bulldozed through, and damned the consequences.
Their respective convictions determined their varried approaches to the implementation of the common goal in article 25(1)(b) to bring about total free secondary education to Ghanaians.
Accordingly, while President Mahama had embarked on the gradual provision of the requisite infrastructure, including new classroom blocks, science laboratories, libraries, E-blocks, dormitories, etc., and rolling out the policy in phases, Nana Akufo Addo, on the other hand, when he assumed power in 2017, rushed-in a wholesale implementation of free secondary education, which came with numerous difficulties, and was roundly criticized by some renowned educationists in Ghana. It is noteworthy that even Nana Akufo Addo’s cousin-Finance Minister, Mr. Ken Ofori Atta, thought the implementation was not properly thought through.
The Way Forward for FSHS:
Enough for the records of who did what in bringing about free senior high education in Ghana. We have to think more progressively about what to do with the program as it is in its current form. There is no doubt in anybody’s mind right now that free SHS has come to stay and shall not be abolished by any future leader.
In fact, President Mahama has said so in the clearest terms during his recent interaction with the Ghanaian media. He pledged to work very hard to improve the program. This writer believes that Alhaji Bawumia and all other contestants for the presidency shall also try to improve on the implementation of the policy. The bottom line is that everybody agrees that the fSHS policy as it exists currently needs to be reviewed in the best interest of the nation.
I have heard and read documents emanating from President Mahama’s campaign that his review process shall include assembling all the stakehoders, including parents, teachers, educationists, students, and others in brainstorming the way forward for improving the policy. I am comfortable with this approach.
Focus on What is Most Important for the Youth Now.
For all the youth of Ghana, who are presently reading this message, what is most important for them, and which must determine how they must vote on the 7th of December in the general elections, is job, job, job.
Ghana has a very high rate of unemployment under the present administration. Many of the unemployed include fSHS graduates, the youth from various tertiary and vocational institutions; those who have learned various trades; and school dropouts.
These people have very low standard of living in an economy of high cost of living created by the regime of Nana Akufo Addo and Alhaji Bawumia, with the latter being the Head of the Economic Management Team of the nation for nearly the past eight years.
For all of these youth, it must not matter who was the first to introduce fSHS to Ghana. You must turn to, and vote for whoever you believe has the best plans to create jobs for you with prospects of improving your condition of living. I have good news for all of you.
Take your time and listen carefully to H.E. John Mahama anytime he speaks to Ghanaians, or engages the youth directly in his one-on-one online interactions. Find and read the many materials online, containing his policy proposals. Finally, when he launches his manifesto for the NDC soon, grab a copy and read carefully, the portions that may be relevant for your expectation for the nation’s leadership.
You may be interested in these Policy Proposals of John Mahama:
Besides his pledge to train one million Ghanaian youth in coding; invest gh₵3billion in training and creating 300,000 IT jobs for the youth; build capacity for the health sector, involving the training of more health workers including nurses; teachers motivation plan, involving training more teachers, and providing adequate incentives to those who may be posted to rural areas; establishing regional job registration centers in regional capitals to track the number of available unemployed hands; the greatest of all the proposals, and which is a real game-changer in the job market is the 24-Hour Economy.
John Mahama’s 24-hour Economy is specifically targeted at the youth, to create several thousands of decent and well-paying jobs for them, while enjoying its concomitant benefits of increasing productivity for our domestic market and exports, and with the effect of reducing prices and inflation internally, while conserving foreign currency that shall result from exporting goods and services from the policy, and retaining foreign currency that would have been used in importing goods that shall now be produced domestically.
The real deal is that the companies and institutions in both the private and public sectors, which shall participate in the 24-hour economy, such as manufacturing factories; pharmaceuticals; agro-processing industries; construction industry; hospitality industry; the DVLA; Ports and Habour; passport office, and others, may all increase their work force by threefold in a three-shift system within 24 hours.
I wish to entreat every youth, who is reading this piece to show very keen, and objective interest in the 24-hour economy policy proposal. If you examine it carefully, and determine obviously that it shall be a game changer if it is implemented, you must have no other consideration nor argument against voting for H.E JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA as the next President of Ghana.
Thank you very much for reading.
By: Eric DELANYO Alifo, Esq.
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