President of the National Teachers Union (TEWU), Ambrose Kwadwoza, has acknowledged the benefits of the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy, but said aspects of it are not fair to all Ghanaians.
He said that while all Ghanaian students want to attend boarding schools, the implementation of this policy has not ensured equal access for all.
talk on the way JoyNews National Dialogue on Free SHS Promise On Thursday, March 21, Mr. Kwadwoza said some students endure long hours in traffic jams and incur high transportation costs because their homes and schools are far from each other.
“If you put all these things into perspective, you will see that the free SHS policy is not fair to all Ghanaians because they are spending hours in traffic,” he said.
The TEWU national president said many students, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, face difficulties in attending schools far from home.
He stressed that these students bear the brunt of this inequality and that the situation highlights the inequity of policies.
“So if someone stays in a boarding house and is fed three times, and someone who commutes to and from school each day is fed once, the cost barrier you want to remove is already the cost of commuting to and from school. So it’s embedded in people: home and back.”
Mr Kwadwoza referred to the argument that students were already commuting long distances before the Free SHS policy, explaining that commuting was previously a choice due to financial constraints.
But he said the introduction of the free SHS policy, which also made boarding schools free, “ensures that everyone benefits from what is available to all Ghanaians for free.”
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