Former Pro Vice Chancellor of UCC, Prof. Kwaku Oduro writes: TIME WILL TELL

Five years ago , the then Minister of Education, Hon. Matthew Opoku- Prempeh (NAPO), didn’t take it lightly when in a speech delivered at Adiembra Senior High School, I called on Government not to rush the across board implementation of the Free SHS policy . I lauded the FSHS initiative but called on the Ministry to use the first year of it’s administration for effective implementation planning to ensure that the policy targets the poor in the society. I was lambasted and lampooned by the Minister and branded a Hypocrite. My free professional advice which was based on historical analysis of challenges associated with free education implementation in other African countries also cautioned the Ministry against promoting Access without Quality through a rushed policy implementation. Other visionary citizens who also cautioned the Government against the wholesale implementation of the FSHS were labelled as ‘Nay Sayers’ . Calls on Government to Review implementation of the policy to ensure its sustainability were twisted. A populist misrepresentation of the notion of ‘Review’ to mean ‘Scrapping’ was pursued just to paint the Review Advocates as Anti-Free SHS citizens. Today, the realities of rushed wholesale implementation of the FSHS have unfolded. The right meaning of the word Review has suddenly been appreciated by the Government . Indeed, when the fundamentals are weak, sustainability challenges will expose the Government’s deficient Free SHS management capacity . Truth is Immaculate and Time Really Tells