TESCON NPP Rallies Support For Free SHS Policy

The Tertiary Education Students Confederation of the New Patriotic Party NPP, University of Ghana, has asked Ghanaian youth to support the party�s free Senior High School (SHS) proposal as that was critical for the development of the country�s human resource base. The group said such a policy was necessary to enable all young people benefit from the country�s rich natural resource. The flag bearer of the NPP, Nana Akufo-Addo has promised to make SHS education free if elected as President. The subject has generated a huge furore about its workability. The latest to join in casting doubts about the policy is Education Minister, Lee Ocran, who told journalists in Accra last Monday that the NPP had underestimated the cost such a policy would bring to the nation. But addressing a press conference at Okponglo in Accra last Tuesday, the President of the TESCON-Legon, Benedict Afena Abrefa, said the ruling party�s posture demonstrated the low belief it had in the Ghanaian. He said the attack on the proposal smacked of visionless leadership. He challenged the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to rather suggest an alternative policy that would grow the country�s human resource and stop attacking the personality of the NPP leader. �Ghanaians, therefore, can trust the ability of Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP to implement the free SHS policy. The youth of this country know it is important to have secondary education and we would put our destiny in the hands of the individual who has shown commitment and says it is possible rather than this crop of visionless crop of people who always think we cannot do it as a people,� he said. The group chided the government for what it described as a poor management of the country�s economy and the nation�s natural reserves. He said the NPP had demonstrated as party in power that it could deliver human centred policies that would benefit the Ghanaian masses. He mentioned the Capitation grant, the School feeding programme, the health insurance scheme among others as positive policies that the Kufuor led administration promulgated to ensure human development in the country. Based on this record, Mr Afena Abrefa asked the Ghanaian electorate to entrust the political mandate in the hands of the NPP come December. The Deputy Secretary of the group, Afia Kwankye Addo,said the NDC administration had misappropriated national funds through the payment of �shady� judgement debts and as a result, did not deserve a renewal of mandate. She said the government was supervising the deterioration of some of the major policies that the NPP government had introduced. �Trumpeting a better Ghana in the face of all these hardships that face our people is an insult to their intelligence and the earlier we kick out this government, the better for all of us,� she reiterated. The meeting was also attended by some executive members of TESCON-Legon.