Education Minister Should Apologise To Ghanaians For Refering Review To Cancellation-Dr. Apaak

Education Minister Should Apologise To Ghanaians For Refering Review To Cancellation-Dr. Apaak

The Member of Parliament for the Builda South and Ranking Member in education, Dr Clement Abas Apaak has called in the Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Adutwum to apologise to Ghanaians for referring the review FSHS to cancellation.

According to him, the Minister is demanding improvement not a review of the policy. However, the Minister does not know the differences between review and cancellation.

This is what he posted on his X page:

Improve what exactly? The challenges exposed by seven years of implementing the FSHS policy are numerous and complex. Dealing with these challenges exhaustively requires a review. What is this warped approach to improving aspects of a challenged policy? We are dealing with the future of our nation and ought to adopt a comprehensive approach, not ‘tot-tot’.

It’s a review, in other words, a formal assessment that will give us pointers on what needs to be improved. All stakeholders but the Minister for Education and other government appointees have called for a review. Even external partners such as the IMF have called for a review of the policy.

In any case, is it not standard practice to review programmes and policies from time to time? The position the Minister and other government officials have taken is purely political. It’s not supported by literature on policy implementation or best practices.

The only reason why the Minister and NPP government appointees are averse to the legitimate and justified call for a review of the policy is because our Flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama, was the first to make the call.

Well, the coming NDC government, under the leadership of John Dramani Mahama, will do the needful as called for by stakeholders, that is, review the policy, with the intent to improve it holistically. As announced by the NDC Flagbearer, a national stakeholders forum will be called to assess the policy and to make recommendations for improvements. This is undoubtedly the way to go.

By the way, the Minister for Education owes Ghanaians an apology for defining review as meaning cancel. As an education Minister, he ought to have known better. Review doesn’t mean cancel.

Dr. Clement Apaak
MP, Builsa South and Deputy Ranking Member, Education Committee