Vice-President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has touted the government’s ‘Free SHS’ policy as the biggest social intervention the country has seen since independence at the Town Hall Meeting and Results Fair currently ongoing in Kumasi at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST)
He said that this was very important to the country because it is obvious and proven by empirical research that key to the economic transformation of every country is the development of human capital, saying it is a more important factor over natural resources.
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“Ladies and gentlemen, the empirical evidence is very persuasive that the key to economic transformation is human capital not natural resources. There are many countries with natural resources but it hasn’t helped them in any way. The evidence shows that what matters is human capital. This is why President Nana Akuffo Addo has an emphasis on making sure that every Ghanaian child, regardless of the financial circumstances of the parents will have access to free high school education”, he said, adding that they have fulfilled this promise as pledged to the nation prior to the 2016 elections.
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In a passionate statement, Dr. Bawumia said that the government by this is committed to continue with the ‘Free SHS’ system because “Children are better off studying under trees than to be sitting at home”.
Throwing in a defense against the many criticisms that has besmeared this policy intervention, he said the major challenge which laid in wait for the ‘Free SHS’ policy was the availability of infrastructure which led to the “innovative” double track system to mitigate the challenge. According to him, the government could not have implemented the ‘Free SHS’ policy without the ‘Double Track System’.
Alluding to what happens in the church system, Dr. Bawumia said “the thinking here with the double-track system is very similar to how our churches have the first service and the second service and the third service in the same building. Because the church has been built but the people are many. So all of them want to come to listen to the word of God on Sunday” asking whether people are rather asked in such cases to sit at home because the church is full?
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“Those who are criticizing the double track system have not been able to offer one alternative. Not one alternative. They are just saying I will abolish the double track but they won’t tell you what they are going to replace it with…” he added.
He was very happy that by the success of this system, the Kenyan government has extended an invitation to the education ministry to help them implement a similar system (double track) in their country calling on Ghanaians to “appreciate what we have” adding that the government is thinking long term and they are not going to compromise.
