Free SHS policy ploy - Prez Mahama

The students in the parked assembly hall cheered the President on with intermittent applause as he delivered his 10-minute- addresss.

President Mahama, who is the Presidential candidate of the NDC for the 2012 election, said the NPP was able to construct only 19 SHSs in its eight years in office as against 119 put up by the previous NDC government.

Besides, he said, the NPP could not achieve the free universal basic education, and wondered how the party could succeed in implementing free SHS.

The President said the educational sector had linkages, and so any programme taken at any of the stages would have an effect on the others.

He said it was for that reason that, he said, the previous NDC government put up 119 SHSs, seven polytechnics and three universities to cater for all the stages.

President Mahama said currently about 18 per cent of children who were supposed to be in basic school and 40 per cent of children who were supposed to be in SHS were not in school due to the lack of infrastructure.

Therefore, he said, the next NDC government intended to build 200 community SHSs to cater for the students from the basic level.

Again, he said, the government would put up 10 teacher training colleges, more nursing and midwifery training colleges and another public university in the Eastern Region.

In a related development, President Mahama visited the University for Development Studies (UDS) at Navrongo, and informed the students of the government’s programme to create jobs for the youth.

For instance, he said, $100 million would be provided for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to access credit to grow their businesses.

He said under the Young Entrepreneurs Programme, $10 million would be allocated to support the youth to start up their businesses.

Meanwhile, President Mahama also visited the Kongo Senior High School, where he inaugurated two boys’ dormitories.

He said the Kongo SHS, which was established four years ago, was one of the examples of schools that the NDC government had put up in the country.

President Mahama assured both schools of the government’s commitment to upgrade their road networks and water situation.

Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru