Free SHS has been a great Service to Parents – Ofori-Atta

The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has hailed the Nana Akufo-Addo led government for putting in place the right policy initiatives that have improved the economic fortunes for the country.

According to him, the NPP government has reduced the burden of Ghanaians as a result of the introduction of some policy interventions including the free senior high school initiative.

The Minister in his mid-year budget review in Parliament, revealed that the implementation of the free SHS programme had provided over 90,000 teenagers access to Senior High School education.

He further added that the policy initiative has also helped parents save significant sums of monies to cater for other responsibilities other than taking care of school-related expenditures for their wards in day and boarding schools.

“On the socio-economic front, the Akufo-Addo Government has eased the burden of hundreds of thousands of Ghanaians and invested in the future of our children and our country. We implemented free senior high school education and improved their future prospects. The Free SHS programme that has provided over 90,000 additional teenagers an opportunity to access high school. This major flagship program has saved parents a minimum of GH¢3,000 and GH¢1,950 per student per academic year for boarding students and day students respectively”

The Finance Minister also mentioned, “sufficient allocation has been made in 2018 to cover the first term of the 2018/2019 academic year” for the free senior high school policy.

The Finance Minister also revealed that government has put in place some stop-gap measures to expand access to Senior High Schools.

Currently, a total of 362,118 first year students from all public SHS are benefiting from the programme. This is made up of 117,692 day students and 244,426 boarding students

He said that government had provided dining hall furniture, desks, bunk beds, student mattresses and other materials to address the challenges that that has come with the implementation of the Free SHS programme.

“In order to address the initial challenges identified with the implementation of the programme, 96,413 mono desks, 32,171 dining hall furniture, 3,033 tables and chairs for teachers, 12,953 bunk beds, 4,335 student mattresses, and 5,135 computer laboratory chairs have been supplied to various Senior High Schools,” he added.