The New Patriotic Party (NPP), has accused the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), of copying its free-SHS policy only to deliver a \u201cwatered-down version\u201d of it, by implementing it haphazardly.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a news conference to counter claims made by the NDC in its recently launched manifesto, Policy Adviser\u00a0for the 2016 campaign team of the NPP, Boakye Agyarko, said the NDC failed to capture its promise of providing over 120,000 Senior High School boarding students with free education in the manifesto,\u00a0although the party mentioned it as part of its commitments for education.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe [President Mahama] mentioned specifically that beginning this academic year, 120,000 Senior High School boarding students will get free education. This promise is completely missing from the published manifesto.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Agyarko lamented the government had done nothing about the promise, leaving the thousands of expectant boarding SHS students to their fate.<\/p>\n
Speaking on the government\u2019s disbursement to Senior High School students as part of the free-SHS programme, Mr. Agyako said government was only providing GH\u00a238 to offset the GH\u00a2 420 fees of 320,488 students per year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe NDC gives 320,488 day students a mere 38 cedis for the entire academic year to offset the government approved fees of 420 cedis per year. I guess this is what they call progressively free… who are NDC are trying to fool?,\u201d he questioned.<\/p>\n
\u201cStealing ideas they cannot implement and by so doing impoverishing Ghanaians even more,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Background<\/strong><\/p>\n In August this year, The Ministry of Education said all the necessary funds had been made available ahead of the implementation of the free Senior High School (SHS) education policy this September, to cover some\u00a0boarding and day students.<\/p>\n The Public Relations officer of the Ministry of Education, Francis Gbadago told Citi News<\/strong>\u00a0that \u201cGovernment and for that matter the Ministry of Education is ready for the funding of this particular policy. We have already taken care of this policy in the 2016 budget, and so we do not think that there is any problem.\u201d<\/p>\n The main opposition party, the NPP had described the free-SHS policy by the NDC as a monumental failure, after the NDC decided to implement what it called a progressive free SHS policy; a replica of the NPP\u2019s much hyped free SHS policy in the run-up to the 2012 general elections.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the opposition New Patriotic Party is expected to launch its manifesto ahead of the December polls on October 8 in the Northern Regional capital, Tamale.<\/p>\n Follow the hashtag #GhElections<\/strong> on social media for election-related stories.<\/em><\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Jonas Nyabor\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The New Patriotic Party (NPP), has accused the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), of copying its free-SHS policy only to deliver a \u201cwatered-down version\u201d of it, by implementing it haphazardly. Speaking at a news conference to counter claims made by the NDC in its recently launched manifesto, Policy Adviser\u00a0for the 2016 campaign team of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":249783,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,58,11],"tags":[11660,3,11909],"yoast_head":"\n