A member of the NPP’s Upper East Regional communication team, Johnson Ayine is calling on the President to listen to the calls of some Ghanaians and introduce a co-payment system at the senior high school level despite the existence of the Free SHS policy.
Mr. Ayine argued that Ghanaians may have to learn the hard way, thus, the introduction of cost to the otherwise free policy would make the Ghanaians people realize better, the benefits of the free programme.
He said this when he spoke on A1 Radio’s Critical Issues.
“This audit report, I want everyone to read it. That will tell you that the revenue that is supposed to come, it is not coming. What we are spending to pay individuals to get us the revenue is more than 2 or 3,000 times what they bring on board. So if the revenue is not coming [yet] they [the revenue collectors] are paid, we are saying that government should not go and borrow, how are we going to get the money?”
“The problem is the Ghanaian problem. To me, if it is cost-sharing, I am for it. President Akufo Addo listen, we are still left with 2 years; if Ghanaians see a light and they want to go and touch the light, let them touch, and when it burns their hands, it is there that they will learn sense. Go and do the cost-sharing. If they even want you to take Free SHS off, [do it]. NABCO, they were pooh-poohing it, today, who are those crying?” he asked.
It would be recalled that in a response to calls to review the Free Senior High School (FSHS) Education policy, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said the country needs a broader conversation on education and national development.
“One of the things people are calling for is, and some say the government has to organise itself to respond to it… they talk about reviewing SHS, I think we should have a broader conversation about the incidence of education on our national development and therefore, on our budgetary and public sector contributions to national education.”
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
