Rev Prof Emmanuel Asante has said it is “wrong” to interpret any proposed “review” of the Free Senior High School (SHS) programme as a “cancellation” of the intervention.
In his view, any review, however, must rope stakeholders across the political aisle.
“For example, let us talk about the free education thing that sometimes, I hear people talk about: what is going to happen if, all of a sudden, in the middle of this programme, which is helping a lot of people, who normally, wouldn’t have had the opportunity to have secondary education, you stop it; what are you going to do to those people?” the former Chairman of the National Peace Council said in an interview with Kofi Oppong Asamoah on the Class Morning Show on Wednesday, 30 March 2022.
On the other hand, Rev Prof Asante said: “You can look at that programme and say, ‘I’m reviewing it in this sense’”.
“I think some time ago when the things were going to be implemented, one prominent personality did say that we do it in such a way that those who have the means would make a contribution. Is it possible to review the programme looking at it that way or do we simply throw it off that, ‘No, it is not necessary?’”
“Because, once some people really really need that help, there are some other people who may be able to pay for their children’s school fees and all that”, Prof Asante said.
“So, if I talk about review, it wouldn’t mean cancel but looking at it critically and this is something that will call for multiparty discussions bringing in different groups”, he noted.
“It is not a question of one party sitting somewhere so that the other party will oppose”.
In the lead-up to the 2020 general elections, the biggest opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and its flag bearer, Mr John Mahama, proposed a review of the programme but the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) said the NDC’s “review” meant a “cancellation”.
