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General News of Thursday, 1 November 2012

Source: Al-Hajj

Former NPP Minister Confesses

Says Free SHS Will Not Work

Supports NDC’s Commonsense Approach of Providing Quality

Education With Improved Infrastructural Development

There are some politicians who fear God and will not lie to help their bosses to deceive the general public in pursuit of their political ambitions. One such person is Papa Owusu Ankomah, former Minister of Education in the erstwhile Kufuor’s NPP administration.

Without mincing words, the former Education Minister, speaking on an Accra based radio station (Joy FM) pointed out that his party’s flagbearer, Mr. Williams Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo will have a herculean task implementing his much espoused Free-Senior-High school policy in the unlikely event he is elected President. On the same wave-length with the ruling National Democratic Congress’s (NDC) common sense approach of providing quality education with emphasis on infrastructural development, Papa Owusu Ankomah said, the country has infrastructural development deficit as far as the educational sector is concerned, that poses a huge challenge for the implementation of the NPP’s free SHS policy. The latest confession by the former Education Minister, vindicates the NPP Director Communications, Nana Akomea’s position that he does not know what his flagbearer’s free SHS policy is about.

According to Nana Akomea, he does know the cost involved as far as the free SHS policy that his flagbearer has been trumpeting all over “I don’t know the total cost”, the NPP’s Director Communications publicly exposes his boss, in Joy FM’s flagship programme, Newsfile weeks ago. Below is published unedited, what Papa Owusu Ankomah had said about his flagbearer’s FREE SHS POLICY, as culled from Myjoyonline; and please judge for yourselves whether or not the NPP and its leader should be taken seriously.

Free SHS will be tough but...

A former Minister of Education in the Kufuor Administration, Papa Owusu Ankomah has predicted that an Akufo-Addo led presidency would have tough challenges implementing its flagship free SHS policy.

According to him, one of the immediate challenges that the NPP will encounter is inadequate infrastructure as enrollment is expected to shoot up astronomically.

The Member of Parliament for Sekondi who was speaking to Joy FM’s Western regional correspondent, Kweku Owusu Peprah said he is confident that the NPP has the right leadership to implement this “tough policy”.

Papa Owusu Ankomah expressed concerns that the free SHS policy will lead to a situation where parents will shirk entire responsibility on the upkeep of their wards in SHS.

The Sekondi MP was however confident that the NPP would successfully implement the free SHS policy should the party be voted to power in the December 7 polls. Source: Joyonline