Political Science lecturer has described as a political gimmick, the implementation of the free Senior High School (SHS) policy by government in the 2015/2016 academic year.
In his view, a government which cannot even pay teachers cannot be trusted to make secondary education free.
Finance Minister Seth Terkper while delivering the 2015 budget statement in Parliament said plans are far advanced to roll out the programme next year.
“The pledge of the president during the 2014 State of the National Address to this august house to implement progressively free secondary education beginning 2015 is ready for take- off,” he stressed..
The Finance Minister noted that funding has been secured for the construction of 123 out of the 200 SHS buildings promised by President Mahama to improve access to education.
Seth Terkper added that the agreed roadmap beginning with day students has been adequately catered for in the budget.
But on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme on Wednesday, Dr. Amoako Baah did not mince words describing it as one of the propaganda stunts of the Mahama-led administration.
According to him, the action and inaction of government is a clear attestation that it has lost focus.
“Even now that you are charging fees you can’t pay teachers; now you say it is going to be free; how are you going to pay them?” he quizzed.
The Head of Political Science Department at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) stated unequivocally that “only the fool will believe it”.
Dr. Amoako Baah said all government is seeking to do is to win the sympathies of Ghanaians ahead of the 2016 general elections.
“What they are doing is just like playing draft; government has lost direction so it just want to do anything to prove to Ghanaians that it has delivered.”
