Kennedy Nyarko Osei, MP, Akim Swedru, has suggested that the governing NPP should consider suspending its flagship free SHS policy.
According to him, the free SHS policy should be suspended together with other social intervention policies such as school feeding, Planting for Food and Jobs, and the Nation Builders Corps programmes as well as payment of the teacher and nursing trainee allowances.
The MP, who doubles as the Chairperson of the Roads and Transport Committee wrote on his Facebook timeline on Thursday, that the government can channel monies that would accrue into other productive sectors to revive the ailing economy.
“If I was to advise the government in taking some drastic measures, like I will recommend for the following social intervention programs to be suspended immediately and all monies pumped in other productive sectors of the economy and let’s see what the impact will be.
1. suspend the FSHS
2. suspend the School feeding program
3. Suspend the teacher and nursing trainees allowances
4. suspend the PFJ
5. suspend NABCO
“Since most Ghanaians are not appreciating the above interventions and are complaining about hardships, it will be very prudent for government to put those monies into other productive areas of the economy. We can save about 5 – 6 billion if we decide to take the above actions and channel all these monies into other sectors of the economy.
“Government can decide use half this amount to support the youth and the other half to support existing agro-processing and domestic products manufacturing industries for the next 3 years and let’s see the results,” Kennedy Nyarko Osei’s post concluded.
The MP’s post comes after Prof Stephen Adei, a former Chairman of the Ghana Revenue Authority, urged the government to review its flagship Free Senior High School policy.
The economist and Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission stated in a Joy News interview that the flagship programme has stretched the already impacted economy seeing that government allocates about GHC7.5 billion every year to the programme.
Prof Adei explained, “We have to look at it again. I think that there are certain schools which we should make autonomous and fee-paying and people will go there, but then make sure there are good community schools for everybody else. So, the Achimotas and the Wey Gey Heys, which people want their children to go, let them pay.”
“Only a small proportion of the poor come to Achimota, let the rich go there and pay. Use the Achimota funds to have very good schools in every district so that they can be there and don’t have to travel. They just come from the villages,” he added.
