Both Kojo Oppong- Nkrumah and President Akuffo-Addo have taken the view that former President Mahama's proposal of a "review" or saying the double track "ento asum" means JDM would scrap the policy if elected into power in 2020.
Kojo Oppong Nkrumah goes a step further to say that former President Mahama has always been against the free Senior High School policy and campaigned against it.
Frankly, I would avoid speaking for the former President because I believe he can speak for himself and has official and volunteer spokespersons who are qualified enough to do that. Just to say that the former President has been handed a perfect opportunity to come clear on how intend to ensure affordable, quality secondary education for all and not skirt around the issue like they typically do. President Akuffo-Addo and his government are implementing a free Senior High School policy, what would the NDC do? Please don't say progressively free SHS.
Now let me explain my confusion, the very first thought of an affordable Secondary Education system based on Community Day Senior High School first occurred to me during one of my treks back home after being sent home for not paying my fees. I was a day student in Sogakope Senior Secondary School (SOGASCO) and I sometimes failed to to remind my mum of the fees so occasionally I got driven out of class in the company of Famous and Osborne. On one of those treks home, I thought to myself how easy government would make our lives if it just absorbed our paltry fees.
Then the question of, "what about your colleagues in boarding, shouldn't they get their fees absorbed too?" occurred to me too. My answer to that question was simple; first I thought, "those hacks" and then "any government who absorbed boarding fees would be fucked (pardon my word)." My view on absorption of boarding fees stemmed from my one year experience in the boarding house. I grew up in Sogakope but agreed to be in the boarding house for the first term of my first year until I saw my second term bills and thought, "this is senseless, I am not coming back here." I know that figure would pale in comparison to what is being paid by parents now but at the time I thought my mum should not be spending that much money on one of 6 children especially when she was breaking her back everyday to keep the family going; so I instead chose to walk to school everyday and I loved it.
The fact is that the second term fees were about 20% higher than the first term ones and it made sense because anyone who has had to go to the market would know that it would be senseless to expect that you would pay less for food than you did three months earlier. From that analogy, I thought any government who decides to absorb boarding fees would be crazy (pardon my words); well, I was wrong. If I was going to school at this time, I would have gone to Mfantsipim, Adisadel or taken up Mr. Adzahli's BIHECO proposal because I would not have had to worry about the money.
Frankly, if President Akufo-Addo does not know by now, his government needs to brace itself for the burden it has taken up on itself cause it is going to be a rough ride.
One of my biggest disappointments in the John Dramani Mahama government is the way they handled the policy to build 200 Community Day Senior High Schools. Frankly, I thought the idea was to bring quality education closer to as many communities as possible and reduce the need for young people to travel long distances to get secondary education at huge costs to them and their parents. So I thought the erstwhile government would market the schools as the foundation for quality, affordable Secondary Education only for them to outdoor a so called "progressively free SHS education policy" in fulfillment of a constitutional mandate. I was further disappointed when they failed to link the new policy to the Community Day schools and surprised at the level of attention the schools got in the communication strategy of the immediate past government. That was a policy huge enough to keep them in power and should have received more funding and attention than it got.
I think for a developing country, Community Day Secondary education is our best bet. We should ensure that every child has a Senior High School in close proximity to him/her and review the School placement system to prioritize schools closer to the average candidate. It makes it easier and affordable for their parents, sponsors and ultimately for government to take up to the extent possible the burden of their education.
I think that is far better than the wholesale arrangement, we are pursuing. That said I appreciate the cojones of this government even though I think they are driving straight into a ditch because in the process, they have reduced a 9 term, 3 year education to a 6 term whatever number of years education system in order to reduce cost.
In the meantime, I think government should stop making excuses for their failure to target when they have the structure of the Ghana Education Service which includes class teachers at the basic level who are more than capable enough to identify children from poor backgrounds and separate them from ones with parents who can afford to spend a little more on their wards. The truth is that the current system hands the advantage to private schools who are still running the 9 term, 3 year education system with students more time in classrooms and on task than the double track system.
Considering the fact that the average middle class, well to do family in Ghana is already turning to the O' level education system for their children, I think we are screwed.
I agree with one thing though, beneficiaries are happy now; well, until quality becomes an issue. For now my brother Louis who is in his last year in SOGASCO continues to refer to the beneficiary students as "Akufo-Addo viwo" or "Akufo Addo's children" with a contempt that shows a disappointment in being left out. He's not happy.
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