{"id":1167644,"date":"2022-08-05T14:20:50","date_gmt":"2022-08-05T14:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/08\/05\/free-shs-non-negotiable-even-with-imf-akufo-addo-2\/"},"modified":"2022-08-05T14:20:50","modified_gmt":"2022-08-05T14:20:50","slug":"free-shs-non-negotiable-even-with-imf-akufo-addo-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/08\/05\/free-shs-non-negotiable-even-with-imf-akufo-addo-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Free SHS non-negotiable even with IMF &#8211; Akufo-Addo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"article-text\" style=\"line-height: 2; letter-spacing: -0.5px;font-size: 18px;\">\n<p>                        <!--p class=\"ky_saved_articles_link\"><span class=\"ky_saved_articles_hide\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\" class=\"ky_saved_articles_img\" alt=\"Free SHS non-negotiable even with IMF - Akufo-Addo\" title=\"Free SHS non-negotiable even with IMF - Akufo-Addo\"><\/span> Bookmark<\/p-->\n<p>President Akufo-Addo says his government will resist any attempt by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to review the Free Senior High School programme and other social intervention policies ahead of the second round of talks for a bailout.<\/p>\n<p>This, he explained, is because the flagship programmes \u201care the heart of government works over the last five years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have made it clear to everybody that they [government\u2019s flagship programmes] are nonnegotiable in terms of our public expenditure,\u201d he assured.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"300\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/1318518451&#038;color=%23ff5500&#038;auto_play=false&#038;hide_related=false&#038;show_comments=true&#038;show_user=true&#038;show_reposts=false&#038;show_teaser=true&#038;visual=true\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Speaking in an interview on GBC\u2019s URA radio in Bolgatanga while on a tour in the Upper East Region, the  President also referred to a comment passed by the Country Director of the IMF,\u2026 that \u201cthey cannot see how an important social intervention can be sacrificed to have a programme with them\u201d to buttress his point.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI agree in the same direction and I am very confident that these programmes, especially, FSHS and TVET .. will be intact,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Following government\u2019s application to the IMF for a bailout, there have been calls for a review of the Free SHS to address the funding challenges.<\/p>\n<p>But President Akufo-Addo has opposed such calls stressing that the Free Senior High School policy would not be reviewed despite the current economic crisis in the country.<\/p>\n<p>He said that the ravaging effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine invasion on the world economy would not deter the government from providing free quality education at the basic and secondary school levels.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"300\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/1318519975&#038;color=%23ff5500&#038;auto_play=false&#038;hide_related=false&#038;show_comments=true&#038;show_user=true&#038;show_reposts=false&#038;show_teaser=true&#038;visual=true\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, this IMF intervention will be the 17<sup>th<\/sup> if the ongoing discussions result in a programme but President Akufo-Addo is optimistic the structure in place may help the country avoid another programme in the future.<\/p>\n<p>                <!-- Post Tags --><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Akufo-Addo says his government will resist any attempt by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to review the Free Senior High School programme and other social intervention policies ahead of the second round of talks for a bailout. This, he explained, is because the flagship programmes \u201care the heart of government works over the last [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1167646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[187],"tags":[648,2756,3074,22409,5480],"class_list":["post-1167644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics","tag-akufoaddo","tag-free","tag-imf","tag-nonnegotiable","tag-shs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1167644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1167644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1167644\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1167644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1167644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1167644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}