President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
• Brigadier-General Joseph Nunoo-Mensah has said the Free SHS policy was not rolled out with an initial plan to improve the Ghanaian educational system
• He said a political purpose was attached to it
• Free SHS was rolled out in 2017
Former Chief of Defense Staff of the Ghana Armed Forces, Brigadier-General Joseph Nunoo-Mensah, has suggested that the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP)’s flagship programme, the Free SHS was rolled out to score political points to win the general elections.
According to Brigadier-General Nunoo-Mensah, the Free SHS plan was more focused on getting votes for the party at the time, than providing a better educational system for Ghanaians
“I don’t think we planned it with honesty. There was a political purpose to use it to win votes. I am putting it very blunt, I am not going to pull any punches here. If I have to hit, I will hit. We did it to win votes not because we want to create a better system of education,’’ he said.
He said this on Joy News’ Prime Morning Show on Monday, September 13, 2021.
The former Chief of Defense Staff of the Ghana Armed Forces also noted that politics appears to have taken the better part of politicians such that the larger good of the populace is less of a priority now.
He explained how past politicians looked out for the good of its citizens by providing interventions that will benefit Ghanaians. The situation appears quite the contrary in recent times he said.
“When Nkrumah and others were in power, they are human, they may have done things wrong but they did it not for gaining something out of it,” he stated.
Brigadier-General Joseph Nunoo-Mensah cited the British educational system as one that looks out for the betterment of its citizenry.
He recalled that British government introduced interventions that bore the educational cost of his children.
“I was in Britain in the early eighties, my children went to Britain. At a point, government intervened not along the way, all the way.
Meanwhile, the former Education Minister, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, in January last year scored the Free Senior High School (SHS) education policy as the most successful programme of the ministry over the past three years.
He said since the introduction of the policy in 2017, the education ministry has been on top of affairs.
He, however, admitted that the flagship programme was fraught with some challenges that have been dealt with.