The Ghana National Association of Teachers has implored government to temporarily shelve its plans to implement its progressively free secondary education this year.
The association argues that it will be difficult to sustain the programme under the current economic conditions.
[contextly_sidebar id=”ptvpcoelLtCUyZspXMAof54dlxGqP6Cr”]They cited government’s inability to honour certain statutory payments as example of what they say is the bad economic conditions in the country.
President John Mahama in his State of the Nation Address said that government will begin the implementation of the progressively free secondary education programme in the 2015/2016 academic year.
Speaking to Citi News the Deputy General Secretary of GNAT Yaw Baafi appealed to government to suspend the programme till economic conditions improve.
“We are in a very serious economic situation now and a lot of statutory payments are in arrears. We are not even paying teachers their legitimate entitlements. So if we are bringing in all this it is just going to swell the expenditure of government,” he cautioned.
While admitting that the idea of a progressively free secondary education is good, Yaw Baafi argued that the timing of the project was wrong.
“So though the idea is good we think that this is not the appropriate time. If government could wait for things to improve a bit then it could be implemented. It is a good idea but without the resources it is going to be difficult. If things must be done it must be done well,” he added.
The President noted in the State of the Nation Address that 367,000 day students will benefit from government’s free progressive senior high school education from Sept 2015.
First phase of Free SHS to cost GHS42 million
The Deputy Minister in charge of Tertiary Education, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa is confident government will sustain its free Senior High School (SHS) programme.
Critics of government’s move have cited how government is struggling to manage the School Feeding Programme, the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and other social interventions.
In an earlier interview with Citi News however, Okudzeto Ablakwa said government has over the years demonstrated that even though it faces challenges in managing such programmes, the programmes are usually sustained.
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Franklin Badu Jnr/citifmonline.com/Ghana