High-ranking NPP officials opposed Free SHS – Education Minister reveals

The Minister said some senior officials of the government did not believe the policy would be feasible.

Mr. Opoku Prempeh said some NPP bigwigs even advised President Akufo-Addo to abandon the programme and apologise to Ghanaians.

He added that the President had to stand his ground in order to proceed with the implementation of the Free SHS policy.

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“My own party members, in fact high ranking members doubted the Free SHS implementation and asked the government to cancel and apologize to Ghanaians for our inability to fulfill the promise for which we were voted,” the Minister told Kumasi-based Angel FM, as quoted by ABCnewsgh.

“…it is too big a project to implement, let’s explain to Ghanaians, call it off and move on, we can’t sustain it…but we stood our grounds.”

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The Free SHS policy was the flagship campaign message of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) during the 2016 elections.

The policy was successfully rolled out in September 2017, with thousands of students benefitting.