President Akufo-Addo called on critics to stop debating the free SHS policy and instead focus on providing ways to improve it.
According to him, the implementation of this policy has not only been successful, but continues to be a transformative program that uncovers talent who may have completed their formal education at BECE level.
Addressing the nation on Tuesday, President Akufo-Addo said: “Mr Speaker, Free SHS may be labeled by its detractors as just a political slogan to be demonized, but it is actually a myth-busting It is a transformative program that liberates the spirit.” . I am proud that under my leadership, the NPP government was able to introduce this innovative policy into the education system. ”
“Mr Speaker, I believe that the success of Free SHS has answered its critics and we should stop discussing it and focus on finding ways to improve it.” he said.
The President said that apart from policy implementation, he was grateful that the announcement of the 2023 WASSCE results had allayed people’s fears that free SHS would lower standards in schools. .
“The increase in students attending high school will create more engineers, doctors, architects, scientists, writers and poets who will further their education,” he suggested.
Rector Akufo-Addo said that even though students are unfortunately unable to continue their schooling after graduating from SHS, they continue to do so with added confidence and are valuable to the workforce. added. “That alone makes Free SHS worthwhile,” he said.
Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch) reports that since its introduction in 2017, the flagship program has benefited over 5.7 million Ghanaian students.
According to the education think tank, the significant increase in secondary school enrollment from 813,448 in the 2016/17 academic year to 1.3 million in the 2022/23 academic year can be attributed to the introduction of the free SHS policy. .
Read more: Over 5.7 million students have benefited from free SHS programs to date – Africa Education Watch
However, there are many problems with this policy that many civil society organizations and institutions in the education field have pointed out.
Although the policy has led to significant increases in enrollment since its rollout, the Institute for Statistical and Social Economic Research (ISSER) and other analysts say that in its current form it has both financial and qualitative implications. It is pointed out that there are issues and new consideration is required.
In November 2023, ISSER highlighted the importance of reviewing certain aspects of FREE SHS.
Areas listed for review include sustainability, with the government absorbing all student fees and expenses given limited budgets.
Additionally, teacher-student ratios have increased in many public SHS schools, leading to a lack of resources and impacting learning.
The World Bank also called for parental means testing and cost-sharing arrangements to ensure optimal benefits and affordability of the program.
In February 2024, the Executive Director of the Institute of Educational Services (IFEST), Dr. Peter Antti, said that no progress will be made in addressing the problem until the government recognizes the problem of funding the free SHS program.
Dr. Peter Antti was speaking over the power outage at the Accra Academy over a debt of GHS480,000 owed to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) since July 2023.
He told JoyNews that the government should have expected an increase in enrollments when the free SHS program was introduced.
“We should have made a conscious effort to improve the school infrastructure while we were going ahead with the double-tracking. Now we don’t know what’s going on, so we should do other kinds of projects within the same education sector.” “I decided to do it,” he said Tuesday.
Dr. Antti believes that the leaders of Ghana’s education system must take responsibility for the challenges facing the education system and work to find solutions.
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