A former Health Minister, Alexander Segbefia, has reiterated the importance of reviewing the government’s Free Senior High School (SHS) policy.
Discussing the sustainability of Free SHS on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, Mr Segbefia said while the policy itself is a beneficial social intervention, it needs to be evaluated to ensure its effectiveness.
He critiqued the governing New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) proposed Free SHS Bill, noting that it aims to entrench the policy rather than address its associated issues.
“The Free SHS policy should be reviewable. So if the NPP is bringing a Free SHS Bill that will be looking at these issues and addressing them, which a policy document can do anyway, then it makes sense.
“But it seems the Bill is to protect the Free SHS policy which makes no sense. And that is where the NDC [National Democratic Congress] or minority has a problem,” he said on Thursday.
Mr Segbefia also accused the NPP of political mischief.
In his view, the governing party is misleading the public by implying that opponents of the Bill want to scrap the Free SHS policy.
“Nobody has ever said that the Free SHS is a bad thing. As for the review, it is necessary and even the IMF has made it part of the programme that government should look at the Free SHS policy.
“Nobody has said scrap, review is review,” he stressed.
The politician further highlighted that the first call for a review of the Free SHS policy came from within the NPP through itself former Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.
He cited Mr Ofori-Atta’s comment that the policy should be targeted at persons with genuine needs and not made to benefit everyone.
“He looked at the books and made it abundantly clear that it is not in the country’s interest that there is no payment scheme that can help the course,” he stated.
The Free SHS programme was a major campaign promise by then-Presidential candidate Nana Akufo-Addo in 2016, which has subsequently become an essential part of the educational system after it was launched in 2017.
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