Manasseh Azure writes: Who started Free SHS?

If there is one issue the media must stop debating, it is who started the Free Senior High School policy. There is nothing to debate about this, and the media should be able to point out the facts to whoever brings up that debate on their platforms. That will help the audience and give the media the space to discuss more important issues.

Ghanaians started hearing about the Free SHS policy in 2008 when candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo devised it. Some civil society groups and individuals described it as populist and opposed it. The opposition NDC and their candidate vehemently opposed it, saying they would go for QUALITY AND ACCESSIBILITY instead of FREE.

Akufo-Addo stayed on his Free SHS but lost the 2008 election. He kept faith in it and lost in 2012. Then in 2015, when the NDC administration, led by John Mahama, realised that he still had not given up on the Free SHS, they decided to cripple that policy by implementing something that was an insult to the intelligence of Ghanaians.

In September 2015, I wrote an article titled “The Lies About Mahama’s Free SHS Policy”. And this paragraph from that article shows the deception that the government introduced ostensibly to undermine the Akufo-Addo’s Free SHS:

“The Government says GHc12.2 million has been released to implement the programme for the first term of the 2015-2016 academic year. The policy will benefit 320,488 students. This means that, in a term, each student will only benefit from GHc38. Thirty-eight cedis is how much each student will benefit from this policy. Ask the SHS students how much each student pays for PTA dues alone, not to talk about other fees per semester.”

This is what the Mahama administration did, and nobody could call that free SHS. When Akufo-Addo took office in 2017, he launched the Free SHS in September of that year. It was the first time secondary education in Ghana was truly free in recent history.

Mahama and the NDC cannot claim Free SHS. They did not start it. Even the Northern Scholarship Scheme that had started in Nkrumah’s days suffered from funding and schools in the north were often closed or re-opened late when Mahama was president. This was one of the issues that worked against the Mahama campaign in northern Ghana when the NDC said he was one of their own. These facts are well-documented, and the media should remind the NDC this.

As I’ve stated elsewhere, Free SHS is one political promise that has been implemented with admirable sincerity. If Akufo-Addo just wanted to tick a political box, he could have waited and implemented it in his third year. However, he started it the same year he took office, when some people in his government said he should have waited until the economy stabilised. Even if the policy fails, I will still credit the President for his honesty in its implementation.

The Free SHS has its problems. Some of us believe that many beneficiaries do not need it. This is what I mean: Without the Northern Scholarship Scheme, which offered free SHS to children of northern Ghana, my ten siblings and I may not have been able to attend high school. But almost all my siblings and I who are old enough to be parents will not need the government to pay fees for our wards. I would want to pay fees for my children so that the government can concentrate on building infrastructure and supporting those who cannot pay. The infrastructure challenges have resulted in the double track, which kept some children home for most of the academic year. Their parents had to pay for tuition to keep them busy, sometimes more expensive than the fees they would have paid in SHS.

Despite the problems with its implementation, President Akufo-Addo has been honest with Ghanaians. Those who said it was impossible should not be allowed to spend precious time on radio and TV engaging in a needless debate.

If the NDC had any good political strategists, they would be advised to stay off the Free SHS debate. That was what drowned the NDC in 2020. In the last minute of the campaign, the NDC stoked the Free SHS debate, which stayed on people’s minds when they voted.

Some parents would not have been able to take their children to senior high school had it not been for Akufo-Addo’s Free SHS. Such parents are eternally grateful to him. To some, that is the only benefit they have received from the government in their lifetime. Their loyalty to the party that brought that policy cannot be questioned. So, you don’t remind them about your opponent’s most outstanding achievement when convincing them to vote for you.

The NDC must not assume that the voters are too stupid to remember when they were asked not to pay fees for their children entering high school.

Despite being needless, this debate benefits the NPP, for it is the most tangible social intervention in recent times that has affected many Ghanaians. If voters can be influenced to vote for a particular party with ten cedis, think about those who saved thousands of Ghana cedis because of Akufo-Addo’s Free SHS. They may have other issues with the government, but the more you talk about Free SHS, the more you remind them of a reason to vote for the NPP. That’s not a good strategy for the NDC.

A word to the wise in these times may not be enough. It will only attract insults, but the truth must be said.