A member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Manifesto Committee on Education, Dr Clement Apaak, has emphasized that the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy is not the original idea of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
According to him, the policy is rooted in Ghana’s Constitution, and its initial implementation began under the NDC in 2015 with the Progressive Senior High School policy.
“Free SHS is not the brainchild of the NPP, the policy born of the constitution and we started implementing the progressive senior high school policy in 2015. We started with 458,700 students who were poor and vulnerable. If we had stayed in power longer, we would have expanded it,” he said.
Speaking during the third edition of Adom TV’s Badwam Sectorial Debate held at the Accra Digital Center on Friday, Dr Apaak detailed that, the NDC initiated the construction of 123 E-blocks, completing 76 and commissioning 46 before leaving power.
He stated that, the party also launched a $156 million Secondary Education Improvement Project (SEIP) to fund 23 E-blocks, improve facilities in 175 SHSs, and provide scholarships to 10,400 needy students.
Furthermore, the NDC equipped 200 science resource centres with modern technology and equipment.
In the tertiary education sector, Dr Apaak highlighted the NDC’s achievements, including the establishment of two new universities which are UHAS and UENR and also securing funding for a third, UESD.
“The party also converted polytechnics into technical universities, upgraded Colleges of Education into tertiary institutions, and abolished the quota system, leading to a significant increase in enrollment,” he added.
At the basic education level, the Builsa South MP mentioned that the “NDC distributed over 100 million free exercise books, 2 million school uniforms, and 12.5 million textbooks in English, Mathematics, and Science.
“We provided 10,000 locally made sandals to pupils in deprived districts. We also eliminated the shift system in public basic schools, and constructed over 1,100 classroom blocks,” he added.
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Source: Faridatu Seidu
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