Scrapping Free SHS means 100,000 will not have Senior High School education every year – Education Ministry
The thought of reviewing or scrapping the government’s flagship Free Senior High School policy has been rebuffed by the Education Ministry.
Public Relations Officer at the Education Ministry, Kwasi Kwarteng argued that the overall cost of not implementing such a programme far outweighs the cost of implementing it.
He explained that the country risks having hundreds of thousands of its young people staying without secondary education without the flagship programme.
“The cost of not implementing Free SHS in the long term has very dire consequences on us as a nation because it means that every year we will be having about 100,000 students that will not have access to education up to the secondary level and that will be dangerous for the socio-economic transformation that we seek to achieve. As compared to the current cost that we incur as a people, we should have the conversation within the proper context,” he said.
Mr Kwarteng’s defence of the policy is coming on the back of pressure mounting on the Akufo-Addo-led administration to review the policy with the latest suggestion coming from the quarters of the Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission, Prof. Stephen Adei.
According to Prof. Stephen Adei, the GH¢7.6, billion expenditure on the programme over the past five years is taking a toll on Ghana’s economy.
His stance is backed by civil society organizations who have supported calls for a review of the programme including suggestions that the programme should be limited to persons who are genuinely poor and unable to fund their secondary education.
