Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh aka ‘Napo’
EDUCATION Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh aka ‘Napo’, insists the free Senior High School (SHS) policy will not survive under a National Democratic Congress (NDC) government.
Consequently, he has admonished Ghanaians to renew the mandate of President Nana Akufo-Addo in 2020 to ensure the progress of the positive social intervention policy.
Sounding peeved, he said several NDC lieutenants, led by ex-President Mahama, who is a beneficiary of free education, have warned to collapse the free SHS programme should they win power again.
Napo therefore entreated the citizenry to, at all times, vote massively for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) since it is the only political party that has the interest and proper progress of the country at heart.
He wondered why the NDC could even think about collapsing a policy like the free SHS, which has so far made it possible for every Ghanaian school-going child to be in school and get educated, when they get power.
According to him, Mr. Mahama, NDC General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah and ex-Minister of Education, Prof. Jane Naana Opoku Agyeman, have publicly vowed to collapse the policy if NDC wins power.
Napo stated that the NDCs’ open threats against the free SHS policy should not be swept under the carpet, saying that the only way to protect the free SHS policy, is to vote massively for Nana Akufo-Addo in 2020.
In an interview with Asempa FM, the Education Minister, who doubles as MP for Manhyia South, noted that the NDCs claims that there are not enough infrastructure for the free SHS programme is not convincing.
He asked if there were enough classrooms when Ghana’s first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, introduced free Education in the northern parts of Ghana, of which Mr. Mahama benefitted from.
“Mr. Mahama’s father was a minister and rich at the time, yet he took his son (Mahama) from Achimota to the north to benefit from free education. Ask Mahama whether we had enough infrastructures at the time?”
According to Napo, Mr. Mahama recently turned to state that he would review the free SHS policy when elected as president “after his earlier threats to collapse the positive policy was condemned by Ghanaians”.
He, however, stated that no mean a personality like the NDC General Secretary, Asiedu Nketiah, has still been insisting that the NDC would collapse the free SHS policy, so his threats should be taken serious.
