Only Nana Addo’s Opinion Matters On Free SHS – Information Minister

Information Minister, Mustapha Hamid, has dismissed Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta’s proposal for the possible altering of the government’s Free Secondary Education Policy in the future.

Mr. Ofori-Atta, the Finance Minister, suggested that the policy could be more financially prudent if it targetted low income families.

His comments came as the government introduced the double track policy which is meant to compensate for infrastructure deficits in secondary schools.

“True, it may be that there have to be changes in the way we are administering it. I can't take my child to Achimota or Odorgono and leave him or her there and drive away and not pay for anything whiles I can pay for ten people.” – Ken Ofori-Atta

But during a meet the press in the Northern Region, Mustapha Hamid insisted the only person who's opinion matters on the issue was that of President Nana Akufo-Addo.

“The person who's vision we are all driving is the vision of the President of the Republic and the President of the Republic's vision is that every person whose child who goes to secondary school must go to secondary school for free. The Finance Minister's opinion does not stand in the face of the President's vision. So forget it, it is not going to happen. The Finance Minister doesn't have the locus. His opinion is dead.”

Beyond this, Mustapha Hamid said it was not even within the remit of the Finance Minister to make suggestions on education policies.

This is despite Mr. Ofori-Atta making an argument based around the financing of the policy.

“It is not even in his bosom to bring an educational matter to Cabinet. It is only the Education Minister. So he can only go and lobby the education minister to come to Cabinet… and there is no cabinet decision that must go contrary to the NPP manifesto. Finish,” Mustapha Hamid remarked.

In the Finance Minister’s submission on Point of View, he stressed that the government’s vision was paramount in the matter.

“Each soul is important. You would rather make that mistake, if it was a mistake to get everybody in the system for the nation to then begin to have a conversation and say this is good for us because we want our human capital to be at a certain level but maybe, let's begin to adjust it this way.”

Mr. Ofori-Atta noted that before the government could move away from the way the policy is currently being implemented, it needed to “get the data to then be discriminatory in how and who pays and who doesn't pay.”