Firstly, it is noteworthy that the National Democracy Congress (NDC) party never condemned the 'free' component of the Free Senior High School (FSHS) policy.

The NDC’s rollout of a targeted progressively 'Free' SHS policy before President Akuffo-Addo’s assumption of office in 2017 is evidence to the fact that the NDC believes in freely accessible and quality SHS education for all Ghanaians.

What the NDC has never believed in and will never believe in, however, is the hasty and unplanned implementation of the policy as has happened under this government.

Emphasis is laid on the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia NPP regime because some visionary NPP gurus in 2017 saw the cogency in the NDC's caution against the rushed implementation strategy of the Free SHS.

Like the NDC, they never believed in the poor implementation of the FSHS policy and therefore added their voice to the call on the regime not to rush implementing the FSHS. 

Dr. Addo-Kuffour, a leading member of the NPP and a former Minister of Defence under President Kuffour, for example, cautioned against the hasty implementation of the FSHS arguing strongly that a rushed introduction of the policy could negatively affect education quality and create setbacks, as published by myjoyonline on 17th July, 2017.

Not surprisingly, this caution aptly reflects present realities: curriculum without sufficient textbooks, staggard academic calendar, disempowered management and governance systems etc.

These visionary cautions were ignored. A year after, when the implementation challenges started looming, resulting in the historical birth of double track for instance, the then Minister of Finance, Hon. Ken Ofori-Atta, like the NDC, called for a change in the way the policy was being implemented and suggested strongly that the FSHS must target the vulnerable ones who lack the financial capacity.

Clearly, these NPP gurus, at a time when they put country over party, objectively cautioned against the obvious qualms that would result following the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government’s poor implementation of the FSHS.

A review of the FSHS is therefore a neccesity to ensure access indexed to quality and equity in the provision of Free SHS.

Availability of resources; even distribution of resources across the various levels - basic, secondary, tertiary; equity indexed to rural-urban/advantage-disadvantaged parity etc. would be areas of critical consideration in the review under a future NDC government.

Sompaonline.com