A senior adviser to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Yaw Osafo-Maafo has reduced the fears of some Ghanaians regarding the ‘Free SHS’ policy.
He said Ghana’s current negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout will not affect the popular policy.
He disclosed at an event in Accra on Monday, October 10, that the programme and social interventions in the education sector, in general, will not be impacted by ongoing negotiations.
“If there is any sector that we should not touch the expenditure, that sector is education. Because we are protecting the potential use of our resources in a very efficient and effective manner.
So, if you touch education, you are undermining your development paradigm. So, that is not the area to go when you decide to cut expenditure,
People have written and I have read in the papers arguing that one of the first things IMF should look at as they admit us into the IMF programme is to cut the Free SHS.
Let me tell you here and now, we are negotiating with the IMF and Free SHS will not be touched, we cannot touch it.
The IMF itself as an institution is pro-poor, the IMF itself believes in education so how can IMF ask you to cut Free SHS? Don’t you have Free SHS in America, don’t you have Free SHS in Germany, don’t you have it in Europe?
Most of the developed world has Free High School, so we are taking the right path towards development and I can assure you that the IMF will not touch the Free SHS”
