Former Minister of Education, Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyeman, has indicated that criticisms against the location of some of the Community Day Senior High Schools (E-Blocks) built by the Mahama administration are unfounded.
According to her, the Ministry of Education, through the Assemblies, secured the lands for the projects. The Assemblies, she said, also went through the chiefs who are the landlords.
There were concerns expressed by some traditional leaders regarding the location of the schools. Some of the schools were located in the middle of a forest, leaving students and teachers to commute for long hours before reaching the premises.
But speaking in an interview on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme on Thursday, September 14 Prof Opoku-Agyeman said: “We did not choose the lands for the schools. We went through the assemblies and the assemblies also went through the chiefs who are the land owners. So the Ministry did not determine the location of the schools.”
She added: “For me, it doesn’t matter the location of the schools, people should make it a point to attend.
“Look at where UPSA and PRESEC Legon are located now. Some 20 years ago, that area was not really developed but people found the need to attend those schools and so this argument about the location is neither here nor there. These are schools that are fully equipped with ICT training materials and other resources.”
Commenting on the Free Senior High School programme launched by President Akufo-Addo on Tuesday, September 12, she said: “During the term of the NDC, a progressive Free Senior High School programme was introduced to target the vulnerable ones.
“There were parents who were willing and able to pay for the fees and others were not able to do so, and so we were targeting the vulnerable with the progressive Free Senior High School.
“The promise of this current government was that SHS education will be free but for some reason, that has changed to the format the NDC adopted which was the progressive senior high school. If for any reason their policy has changed, they will have to communicate that properly to Ghanaians.”
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
