The Campaign Team of NPP Flagbearer, Dr Mahamadu Bawumia, has urged Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, NDC Running Mate, to be objective and truthful about the Akufo-Addo government's Free SHS policy.
It would be recalled that in her speech last Wednesday, April 24, 2024, at UPSA, Prof. Naana Opoku-Agyemang fired salvoes at the NPP flagship programme, the Free SHS, describing it as being at war over food, space, calendar, materials, textbooks, hence creating an atmosphere that suppresses learning.
But in a sharp rebuttal, team DMB accused Prof. Naana Opoku-Agyemang of engaging in propaganda and a biased assessment of the Free SHS.
A statement signed by Nana Akomea, Deputy National Chairman of Bawumia 2024 campaign team said the policy has resulted in over 60% enrollment in secondary school for Ghanaian children between 2016 and 2023 which is a significant impact.
It asserted that the Free SHS beneficiaries have chalked the most remarkable results at the WASSCE.
Nana Akomea added that the WASSCE results from 2020 till date compared to 2015 and 2016 show a remarkable improvement in the performance of the students.
Additionally, this year saw the Free SHS beneficiaries sweep the top three International Excellence Awards instituted by WAEC.
The statement also established that Prof. Naana Opoku-Agyemang, if she would be honest, would admit the challenges with feeding and other educational materials have bedeviled secondary education in Ghana even during her time as Education Minster, therefore not peculiar to this current administration.
In Prof. Naana Opoku-Agyemang’s own handing over notes, she outlined arrears in feeding grant even for special schools, capitation grant for primary schools, among others including what the statement calls the "so-called progressive free policy of the NDC" being in huge arrears and "all these difficulties persisted in a time when there was no Free SHS".
The Bawumia campaign team asserts that Prof. Naana Opoku-Agyemang’s observation of Ghana's education system today as an “atmosphere that suppresses learning” is a "laughable observation looking at the remarkable results of free SHS graduates".
"It is an observation that can only come from her self-serving ambition", they concluded.
