Haruna Iddrisu, the Education Minister, has rejected Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s claims that the Free SHS programme is facing challenges,
The Education Minister stated that the free SHS programme has seen significant improvements under the NDC government.
According to Haruna Iddrisu, Dr Bawumia may have been misinformed and urged him to reconsider his claims, particularly on student feeding and other support.
Haruna Iddrisu, responding to Dr Bawumia’s comments, argued that some of the challenges currently being addressed were inherited from the previous administration.
The Education Minister stated, “Over the weekend, the New Patriotic Party leadership were in Kumasi for the election of its national leaders… Significant at that forum were comments attributed to the flagbearer and presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, to which he said that the Free Senior High School is suffering”.
“I don’t want to believe that the Free Senior High School did not suffer in the last decade or eight years, and that every qualified BECE student got admission to a secondary school of his or her choice. That practically was impossible, and therefore Dr Mahamudu Bawumia must come again when he says that the Free Senior High School is suffering,” he argued.
Haruna Iddrisu added, “Also attributable to him was that he says that students have no meals. That is economically begging the truth”.
The Education Minister also rejected claims that students were not receiving adequate meals, arguing that the government had reviewed the funding mechanism for feeding under the Free SHS programme.
He argued that the uncapping of the GETFund had enabled the government to improve food supplies.
Haruna Iddrisu added, “President John Dramani Mahama has reviewed the Free SHS and its funding mechanism for feeding. With the uncapping of the GETFund, adequate food supplies have been made available to all senior high schools across the country, unlike it was in the last eight years of the NPP administration”.
“These are matters anybody, including parents and students, can verify based on evidence available,” he noted.
“When Dr Bawumia said that tuition was free under the New Patriotic Party, that is also begging the issue. Throughout history, and since independence, tuition has remained free at all levels of education in Ghana. That is a fact, and that is evidence. Maybe he was probably talking about living in another country and not in Ghana he seeks to lead,” he concluded.
His comment follows Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the NPP leader and 2028 presidential candidate, who criticised the John Mahama-led NDC government, describing its nearly two years in office as a period marked by a catalogue of unfulfilled promises to Ghanaians.
Speaking to thousands of delegates at the NPP National Delegates Conference in Kumasi, Dr Bawumia listed the NDC government’s failed promises to Ghanaians after their two years in office.
“In education, Free Senior High School is suffering under the NDC. After they promised to improve meals for students, today it has deteriorated. Many of our young BECE graduates are being deliberately cut off from Free SHS, and what frustrated parents are told by the government is that their wards have deservedly failed.”
“I believe many Ghanaians are not surprised by the way the NDC government is managing the Free SHS program. They never believed in it. They bastardised it for years, election after election, until they realised its impact on every household in Ghana.”
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Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu has rejected Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s claims that the Free SHS programme is facing challenges, stating that the programme has seen significant improvements under the NDC government. He says Bawumia may have been misinformed and urged him to reconsider his claims, particularly on student feeding and other support. #3NewsGH #TV3GH
— #TV3GH (@tv3_ghana) October 7, 2026
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