Free SHS debate: Manasseh and Sammy Gyamfi clash

While ace investigative journalist, Manasseh Azuri Awuni has dismissed claims by the NDC that it introduced the Free SHS Policy, National Communication Officer of the NDC, Sammy Gyamfi says the

Manasseh in a recent Facebook post, reiterated his claims in an article published in 2015 that the NDC’s belated attempt to associate itself with the Free SHS Policy was an insult to Ghanaians following the allocation of GHS12.2 million for the implementation of the policy for the 2015/16 academic year.

He recounted how many people including civil society organisations ridiculed the policy as populist and not implementable, and how Nana Akufo Addo stuck with the policy despite losing the 2008 and 2012 elections.

“Mahama and the NDC cannot claim Free SHS. They did not start it. Even the Northern Scholarship Scheme that had started in Nkrumah’s days suffered from funding and schools in the north were often closed or re-opened late when Mahama was president. This was one of the issues that worked against the Mahama campaign in northern Ghana when the NDC said he was one of their own. These facts are well-documented, and the media should remind the NDC this,” Manasseh wrote.

But Sammy Gyamfi says the NDC’s claim has a sound basis and is justifiable. In a direct response to Manasseh, Sammy Gyamfi posed seven questions to Manasseh Azure:

He described the claim that the NPP Government released a paltry 12.1 million for the 2015/16 academic year as deceptive: “The GHS12.1 million you are talking about about, was only the first financial release by government for the implementation of the progressively free SHS program. The total expenditure by government on the progressively free SHS program for the 2015/2016 academic year was an amount of GHS25.96 million. This is contained at paragraph 781 of the NPP’s own 2017 budget approved by Parliament”.

He added that it was untrue that each student benefitted a meagre amount of 38 as he claimed by Manasseh: “The progressively free SHS program launched by John Mahama in 2015 absorbed GHS54 of the fees of 1st year and continuing day students and GHS58 of the fees of 1st year boarding students for the 2016/2017 academic year and not GHS38 as claimed by you. This is contained in a widely published official release from the Ghana Education Service.”