Free SHS Not Really Free

The Director of the Grassroots Transparency Initiative at Will Way Africa, Mr. Johnson Ayonka has stated that the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) flagship policy― free SHS was not properly planned to reach its fullest capacity.

In an interview with Aljazeera, Mr. Ayonka said in government’s bid to implement policies and actions, it failed to involve health and social workers in specific communities that have high instances of teenage pregnancy.

According to him, this oversight has made it hard for the free SHS to be fully embraced.

He said, due to bureaucracy and inefficiency, government has not provided what is really needed to make the policy a success.

“Even though the intention behind the policy was good, the government was not well prepared to implement it to the fullest. They also tried to implement it from the center, instead of from the local area and the money was not made available in advance,” he said.

Though many accepted and appreciated the free SHS policy implementation, a few challenges have propped up since its inception.

Jo Hallett who works with Ghana School Aid and Let’s Read Ghana also stated that one major reason for the challenges are the lack of good and enough infrastructure to accommodate students.

He added: “There’s a lack of equipment, books and resources, the training of teachers, finance of all sorts and that needs to be addressed.”

According to him, government has given children the access to education yet many in the rural areas are faced with challenges such as families who prevent children from schooling due to subsistence farming, illegal mining and gender disparity.

A foundation was laid for free SHS when primary education became free in 1961 with a restructuring of the educational system in the 1980s to make way for other courses.

In 2017, President Akufo-Addo implemented the free SHS policy to enable all senior high school entrants the opportunity to enjoy education with no payment of fees.

By: Jennifer Esi Avemee/ thePublisher