free SHS must be reviewed – Mahama to Government

Free SHS must be reviewed Mahama: Former President of Ghana John Dramani Mahama claims that the Akufo-Addo administration still has time to evaluate its free senior high school program.

The former president has often urged the government to reconsider Ghana’s Free SHS policy.

Mahama chastised Akufo Addo for his government’s continued failure to modify the policy, claiming that the government’s politicization of the country’s education by sacrificing quality for quantity is doing nothing but increasing pressure on the insufficient feeding of boarding students.

Speaking during the 8th Biennial Delegate Conference of the Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS) in Koforidua, Mahama stated that he is not opposed to the Free SHS Policy, “It Has Come To Stay,” but rather calls on the government to revise its execution.

He advised the government to call a nationwide stakeholder meeting to examine the policy.

“Any opportunity to encourage this government to consider a National Stakeholder Conference to review the implementation of the policy. There are so many educational professionals and experts, including many of you in this room, who will be able and willing to bring the wealth of experience and knowledge and put it at the disposal of the government,”

He added that program may be enhanced by instituting a bursary system that targets low-income families and including private senior high schools with some infrastructure to supplement the policy.

“There are available information on a large number of the existing private Senior High Schools with enough facilities that could have been utilized to avert the immediate infrastructure …that the public system has brought about following the implementation of the free Senior High School,” Mahama advised.

“Engaging private schools would have saved parents and students from the psychological torture, the unpleasant experience and the unplanned cost they have encountered with the introduction of the double track system,” he added.

He further stated that the introduction of the policy has compelled parents to withdraw their wards from school.

“When the free Senior High School System was introduced, and it was restricted to only students in the public school. All parents moved their children from the private Secondary school to public school to take part in the double track system.”

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