All SHS students must benefit at a go -Minority

The Minority in Parliament has raised serious concern over beneficiaries of the free Senior High School programme, stating that it would be a great deceit not to include the second and final year students of the 2017/2018 academic year.

The leader of the Minority, Haruna Iddrisu, who addressed a press conference yesterday to respond to the State of the Nation address delivered by President Nana Akufo-Addo, noted that most parents were made to believe that all SHS students are to benefit from the programme, and anything short of that would be deceitful.

“We also hope that it is not first year students admitted in the 2017/2018 academic year who will be catered for under the programme. This will leave hundreds of thousands of second and final year students and their parents in the cold, after they have been led to believe that all SHS students were to benefit from absolutely free education,” he said.

According to him, if their suspicion that the second and final year students are not part of the new policy proves to be true, then that step (free SHS) would not be significantly different from the progressive free SHS programme introduced by the Mahama administration, to which the NPP opposed.

The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, recently announced at the 60^thAnniversary of Okuapeman School, the commencement of the free SHS, slated for September this year. His announcement met various commentaries for and against the policy, with some questioning the source of funding for the programme.

Not long afterwards, the Senior Minister was reported to have made public that the government intends using the Heritage Fund to finance the programme, which was rejected by the opposition.

Nevertheless, the MP for Tamale South, Haruna Iddrisu, like many others, was expecting to hear something about it in the State of Nation Address (SONA), but the contrary was the outcome.

“We note that the President and his spokespersons have sought refuge in the budget statement to be presented by the Finance Minister next week. We are told that the scanty detail provided in the SONA, on the key issues that matter to the people and the many promises made to the Ghanaian in the NPP manifesto and on campaign platforms, will be fleshed out in the budget.

“We are also told that funding sources for the Free SHS promised, which many expected will be revealed in the SONA, in light of the Heritage Fund debacle, will now be disclosed in the same budget.

“While we have substantial doubts that the President would not have loved to be the one indicating in clear terms where money will come from to fund this herculean promise, if, indeed, a credible source has been found, we will eagerly await the said budget statement to find out this, and many more,” he said.

On the Energy Sector, the Minority could not understand why the President claimed that US$2.4 billion of debt has been left by the immediate past NDC government, but did not add that those were legacy debts accrued over a period spanning four governments under the Fourth Republic.

The Minority added that it was in recognition of the need to amortise those debts, and free up credit lines for the various utility companies, that the NDC government introduced the Energy Sector Levies.

They further noted that through that mechanism, the portion of the debt owed to the banks, amounting to about GH¢800 million, was restructured by leveraging some proceeds that had accrued from the levy.

That, the opposition said, gave the banks and the utilities substantial breathing space, while efforts were made to deal with the components of the debts owed to suppliers.

“It must be recalled that President Akufo-Addo and the NPP promised, while campaigning, to scrap this levy. The President was, however, silent on the fate of this levy, which, perhaps, gives credence to indications by the Finance Minister that the levy will be maintained, contrary to their campaign promise.

“We await word on what they will do with this important levy, which represents the most viable option to pay down the legacy debts which had crippled the country's utilities for years.

“It is noteworthy that in opposition, the NPP claimed to be opposed to the Compact II signed by Ghana with the Millennium Challenge Cooperation, which focuses on a concession programme for the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

“We had always known, and we believe also, Ghanaians do know that this was nothing short of populism and political grandstanding intended to curry favour with the electorate and workers of ECG.

“Still in the power sector, President Akufo-Addo indicated in his address that his government intended to list VRA and GRIDCO on the Ghana Stock Exchange. We are convinced that this is only a euphemism for the wholesale privatisation of both vital state power companies, and we urge President Akufo-Addo to come clear on the matter to foster proper national debate on the subject,” the Minority stated.

By Maxwell Ofori, Parliament House