A former Trade Minister, Dr. Ekwow Spio Garbrah believes the hitches that have marred the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government’s implementation of the free secondary education policy are due to the lack of planning.
In an interview with Citi News, he said this was evidenced by the fact the government is yet to clearly declare the cost and funding for the policy. “Today that Free SHS has started, even the total cost is still to known and where the money is going to come from is still not known,” Dr. Spio Garbrah stated.
He recalled that in 2016, when President Nana Akufo-Addo was a presidential candidate, he could not disclose the cost of the free SHS when asked on the BBC’s HardTalk program.
Dr. Spio Garbrah’s cohorts in the opposition National Democratic Congress have also accused the government of reneging on the free SHS promise because it was later announced that it would not cover continuing students.
Dr. Spio Garbrah noted that “the timing and execution of all these things have become a challenge partly because of the poor planning that took place and the very interesting promises which are not easy to execute.”
“When government got around to actually examining who should actually benefit from Free SHS, they realised that they could not give to all students so second and third-year students will have to pay their fees like normal.”
As far as funding is concerned, the government allocated GHc 480 million for the policy in the 2017 budget.
President Akufo-Addo, at the launch of the policy on Tuesday, indicated that government has “decided to use the proceeds from our natural resources” to invest in the policy.
Challenge to revenue generation
The free SHS implementation, coupled with the NPP’s removal and slashing of various taxes would have implications for revenue generation, Dr. Spio Garbrah said.
“If you promise free SHS and then in the first three or four months, because you have also promised remove taxes or reduces them, you go and remove and reduce all kinds of taxes then by the first half of the year, you find that you have actually gotten less revenue than you expected and your revenue targets have been missed.”
Source: Citi News
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We shall all contribute ahhh! called Donations!!!! and more!
If NDC wins the 2020 elections they can scrap the free SHS policy if they are not happy with it, for now they have to learn to live with it PERIOD.
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This guy has shot himself in the foot by criticizing this noble policy. The political will needed to implement such policies has been amply demonstrated by the show boy.It needed to start from somewhere and by God's grace this 2017/2018 batch are the pioneers period.In this case if you have 2 kids in 1st and 2nd year you will only pay for 1 child till he is done with the high school.. The President must put his put presidency on the line just to ensure that the policy is successful and sustained forever. There should be a government white paper on this so that succeeding governments will not just abolish it because it an NPP or NDC policy
Rather rich for a man who planned the Kommenda Sugar Factory superbly to have all year round raw materials for production to be talking of proper planning. Anybody and all within the NDC with an eye on the flagbearer position has to cackle to keep their names in the news.
What is this guy seeking to say here. He made a big mistake in his life to have joined the rogues as a member of Mahama Administration.Just keep for a minute your own counsel and you will realize that this man has been damaged by the infectious NDC-Epileptic Propaganda flay-possessed by insane argumentation. Baseless Propaganda is the order of the day. The policy has kick-started. Of Course there can be some challeges here and there but you can't just reduce it to unplanned policy. The Ministry has made it quite clear that constructive criticism is welcome for evaluation and improvement, going forward.It is really, a pity for this Gentleman to have degenerated to this awful level of NDC-Syndrome-symptomatic of deceit, incompetence, corruption and intellectual dishonesty.
Mr. Spio, the money will come from our taxes, period.
Massa; Sometimes you ask yourself why certain people declare themselves as potential leaders when you know and can tell how uless people like Spio-Garbrah can be ; HOW CAN SPIO -GARGRAH BE A LEADER : this is a man who assisted JJ Rawlings to mess up Ghana and degrade the moral fabrics of our society ; today this ***barred word*** can not even understand simple programs that will assist growth -EDUCATION ; this a man who never obained a masters degree and a Phd and calls himself a 'DR'and allied himself with pastor Duncan -Williams another idiotic full who thinks he has being blessed by God because he has used his church Actio Chapel to dupe people ; the idiotic full goes on to ask for figures and how the whole program of free education can be financed ; ths full of a fante extraction should understand that there are estimared and actual figures ; for the acual figures for the program they are not yet in until all the students settle ; financing of program has been clear ;a certain % of our natural resources will be used to finance the program according to Nana Addo ; WHAT IS WRONG WITH THAT !!!; Look at the wastage and leakages initiated by Jon Mahama ; a man who enjoyed free education even with his father the regional mnister with so many wives telling todays children that they cannot have free education ; WHAT A WICKED NORTHNER LIAR AND A THIFF !!!!!
You have not told us what is wrong with using our natural resources to fund the free SHS. Do we always have to use our taxes for projects? That has been the problem with the NDC. We cannot continue to tax the people always.
The collapsed and the downfall of NDC will be their fuuuulish critiscm on this Free SHS. If you know how Ghanaians are grateful to God for this policy. Fear fear fear.This policy is a whole voting winning machinery. Wizards.You criticize it and now it has come to pass.The only planning known by NDC is planning for corruption and dubious deals fuuuulish