The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has asked the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) to credit them for introducing the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy in 2015 and then Nana Akufo-Addo applauding John Mahama for it.
The NDC, at a press brief Thursday, claimed to be the initiators of the policy, insisting that the policy was officially launched by the erstwhile John Mahama government before leaving office.
“It doesn’t matter the number of lies that the NPP tells, the facts show that it was indeed President Mahama who launched the programme (starting) with 360,000 day students,” the National Communications Officer for the party, Sammy Gyamfi said at the brief.
With a few days to the 2020 December 7 polls, there has been much debate between the two major political parties (i.e the NPP and the NDC), over who implemented the free Senior High School policy.
As part of their campaign messages, both parties are claiming ownership of the programme.
During a campaign at Tuobong, a community in the Tempane District of the Upper East Region, former President John Dramani said the Akufo-Addo government inherited the programme from him before assuming office as it had already been launched.
President Akufo-Addo on the other hand has fought off this claim.
During his campaign tour of the Greater Accra region, he said Mr Mahama’s claim was laughable as he (Mahama) had opposed the policy when President Akufo-Addo first suggested it.
However, at the Press brief, Mr Gyamfi clarified that the policy is not the initiative of the NPP as it is embedded in the 1992 Constitution of the Republic, as such President Akufo-Addo cannot claim ownership of the policy.
“The NPP in the past few days has been claiming that the free SHS policy was conceived by them and that the NDC is so opposed to the policy that we will cancel it when we come into power. These claims are not true,” he said.
“Free SHS was conceived and captured in the 1992 Constitution and that, it was Mr Mahama who commenced its implementation in 2015,” Mr Gyamfi said.
He also noted that textbooks used in various schools under the Free SHS policy were all procured by the Mahama government.