Gov’t blames Akufo-Addo for failure to fulfill SHS promise

Government is blaming Nana Akufo-Addo and two others who initiated the election petition case for its failure to build the 50 community day senior high schools promised this year.

Murtala Ibrahim Mohammed, Deputy Minister for Information and Media Relations, however, assured that the total of 200 schools will be built by the end of 2016 just as promised by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) during the 2012 electioneering period.

Speaking on TV3’s Agenda, the Deputy Minister, who is also Member of Parliament for Nanton Constituency, asserted that the Mahama-led government is not the first to miss a policy target.

He says even in developed administrations such as those in the US and the UK, targets are sometimes not met.

“It is not a crime,” he stressed, blaming the missing of one of the key manifesto promises on many factors including the decision by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and two others to contest the results of the 2012 elections.

“The Supreme Court [proceedings] affected us economically,” he stated.

He, however, acknowledged that the Ministry of Education had done a yeoman’s job by putting in extra effort to get the projects started.

“They needed to get land and architectural design.”

The construction of the 50 schools was captured in the 2013 budget, and several efforts were made at achieving that target. President John Mahama was in the Central Region early this year to negotiate land for the commencement of the project.

The Ministry of Education had also written letters to some districts informing of commencement of work.

The project is expected to bridge the gap between the number of junior high schools and senior high schools.