Critics of free SHS intimidated and victimized - Lawyer

Private legal practitioner, Nana Yaw Osei has alleged critics of the government's flagship policy free Senior High School (SHS) are being intimidated and victimized by the government.

According to him, some staff of the Ghana Education Service (GES) are intimidated and therefore are unwilling to come out publicly with challenges facing the policy.

Nana Yaw Osei on Kumasi-based Abusua FM disclosed that he has been denied information about the number of schools across the country after writing to GES to help him with figures on the feeding programs in public schools.

“I was denied such information by GES when I wrote to them to enable me write an article about the School Feeding Program”, he claimed during a panel discussion on ‘Abusua Nkommo’.

“I suspect GES staff are intimidated not to give information out”, Nana Yaw Osei told host Kwame Adinkra.

According to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) member, the free education policy of the government may not succeed if the current trend of feeding allowances is not resolved immediately.

Meanwhile, the Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Prof. Akwasi Opoku-Amankwah says the project is suffering because some heads of various schools are being economical with the truth and have also not presented accurate reports needed by government in the execution of the policy.

Speaking in an interview with Hello Fm in Kumasi, he explained that, in recent reports received by GES, his office noted, a particular school requested for facilities which were already available to the school. But in an attempt to resolve it, it was realized that, most heads of schools have repeated similar requests.

“Just recently, when going through reports from some schools, we realized requests made by authorities had already been provided. So we decided to go through about thirty schools we suspected similar occurrence. When we visited those schools it was revealed that, for instance, a school which requested for dormitory already has it, instead, you could realize they needed a dining hall”. Mr Amankwah said.