NDC’s Claim of Nana Addo’s Free SHS Illogical and Disingenuous

Since becoming the NPP’s flagbearer in 2017, Nana Akufo-Addo has demonstrated consistency and a clear commitment to helping many children in Ghana who could not afford Senior High School (SHS) education. Before his intervention, SHS was the biggest hurdle in education, with many brilliant boys and girls falling out due to financial barriers, not to mention the challenges of pursuing a university education. Many parents struggled to provide SHS education for their children.

Nana Akufo-Addo revived the hopes of Ghanaian parents by promising free SHS education. In 2012, he was determined to implement this policy and never wavered in his commitment. Though he lost the 2012 elections, he faced heavy opposition from Mahama and the NDC, who accused him of being a fraud and a desperate politician seeking power. They criticized the idea of using public funds to make education free, campaigning vigorously against it and labelling it a scam. The NDC's numerous sponsored adverts against the policy made their opposition clear to all Ghanaians. In 2015, sensing the popularity of Nana Akufo-Addo’s free SHS campaign, Mahama hastily announced a ‘progressively free SHS’ policy, building E-blocks and providing some financial assistance to day students. However, by 2016, his policy was struggling due to his initial opposition and lack of clear intent.

During the 2020 election campaign, Mahama criticized the implementation of free SHS, arguing that many parents could afford to pay school fees and that there was no need to make SHS entirely free. He claimed that if he had 2 billion Ghana cedis, he would not allocate it all to the free SHS budget. Mahama has consistently opposed the free SHS policy and suggested that he would review it without providing a clear policy guide.

Today, it is disingenuous for the NDC to claim that they started and implemented free SHS. This assertion is not only misleading but also reflects a desperate attempt to rewrite history. Nana Akufo-Addo has been consistent with his free SHS campaign since 2008 and implemented it in the first year of his administration after winning the 2016 elections. Every Ghanaian knows this, and the NDC’s attempt to claim credit is incomprehensible. The media's failure to expose the NDC and Mahama’s negative stance on the policy since 2008 is disappointing. The NDC is likely to alter or cancel the free SHS policy if it comes to power, potentially denying many poor students access to secondary education.