Running mate of John Dramani Mahama during the 2020 presidential elections Prof Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang has condemned what she called government’s defensive posture towards the implementation of its flagship policy, the Free SHS.
Prof Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang who was Education Minister during erstwhile Mahama administration said challenges with the education under the Nana Addo led administration are not limited to only the Free SHS but the entire education system which government must admit and ask for help in dealing with them. She believes government’s admission of challenges confronting the Free SHS policy will allow the experts in the sector to offer help.
“If the people in charge are saying there are no problems, then we have a very big problem. I don’t know what there is to hide and if you admit you need help, there is nothing wrong with it. Wisdom never resides in the head of one person, I have no advice to give someone who doesn’t need help or hasn’t asked for it” she said.
According to Prof Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, the free SHS policy is a good one that needs strategic plans in order to implement it effectively, “but what do we see now, that is why we say they must review the implementation strategy so that the policy will run well”.
Addressing a news conference held at the Information Ministry on June 6, 2021, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwm, intimated that, the situation in which stakeholders single out specific challenges in government policies and exaggerate them to fit a particular agenda is nothing to write home about.
But in her response same day, Prof Opoku-Agyemang has asked the Education Minister to come clean and tell Ghanaians the real state of the Free SHS policy, adding that “it is only by that posture that we will give him the help but if the reaction from the government says that there is nothing wrong and everything is fine. Then help will not come”.
“We all mean well for the children and we need to ensure that our future leaders are given the education that will guarantee their usefulness tomorrow”.
She also called on government to listen to the Head Teachers and Teachers who are on the field and not to threaten them with transfers, “that will not give government the true reflections of what is happening on the ground”.
“Be willing to listen. Sometimes, it is not always what you want to hear that people say. But you are not everywhere, they are there and they are telling you the issues on the ground,” she said.
