Former President John Dramani Mahama has reiterated his commitment to reviewing the free senior high school policy if he is elected as the next president.
The presidential candidate of the NDC assured that he would give top priority to resolving the issues surrounding the implementation of the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy.
He made the pledge in response to a call made by the three pre-tertiary teacher unions at an engagement he had with them to solicit their input as the NDC finalised its manifesto for the 2024 general elections.
The engagement was attended by representatives from various teacher unions, including the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers.
President of NAGRAT and spokesperson for the three teacher unions, Angel Carbonu, argued that it was time to review the policy to meet the objective for which it was introduced.
He said the unions appreciate the free SHS policy, “but we believe that the time has come for us to review the free SHS concept to make it work and achieve its intended purpose.”
Reacting to this call, Mr. Mahama said he would hold a stakeholder forum on education in his first 100 days as president to solicit input on how to make the implementation of the policy far better.
“Within the first 100 days of me becoming president, we will hold a stakeholder dialogue on education. It will have as part of its focus the implementational bottlenecks of the Free SHS, but it is also going to deal with how we can improve financing and teaching and learning at the basic school level and so at that stakeholder’s engagement, NAGRAT, GNAT, parents, students, educational experts, everybody is going to be there and we are going to have a discussion on access, on equity, on affordability, and on financing our educational system.”
Source: rainbowradioonline.com
