With Less Than 10 Days to the 2024 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections, Questions Are Being Raised About the Future of the Free Senior High School Policy (FSHS)
The Free Senior High School (FSHS) policy, a major campaign promise of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) before the 2016 election, is once again at the center of political discourse.
With less than 10 days to the 2024 elections, both the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the NPP have pledged to retain the policy. However, the NDC suggests that some modifications should be made to the policy’s implementation.
A recent pre-election survey by the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) reveals that the NPP’s campaign messages focus heavily on education, accounting for 88% of observer reports, compared to 77% for the NDC.
Kwasi Kwarteng Warns Against Modifying the Free SHS Policy
Kwasi Kwarteng, the Spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, warned against reviewing the Free SHS policy to exclude parents who can afford to pay fees. Speaking on JoyNews XSpaces, he emphasized the need to build systems and data to track the real income of parents before any modifications are made.
“Until we build systems and data to be able to know or track the real income and earnings of parents, I am not sure it will be appropriate to use the model that you are suggesting,” he said. “If we are not very careful, we may reduce the whole education system into educational apartheid, where the rich can pay for the highly subscribed schools, and the poor may not be able to afford those schools.”
Mr. Kwarteng further shared his observations from meetings with parents and stakeholders. He pointed out that many individuals who claim they are willing to pay for their children’s education are often middle-income earners. These parents, despite having relatively higher incomes, are often willing to go the extra mile to secure admissions for their children in top-tier schools.
This situation, he argued, could leave many children without access to quality education in these highly subscribed schools, as their parents may not be able to afford the fees.
“For us, the Free SHS is not only a game-changer, but it is also an affirmative policy designed precisely to give opportunities to students who would not be able to afford the fees, particularly in the highly subscribed schools,” Mr. Kwarteng added.
President Akufo-Addo Highlights Achievements of the Free SHS Programme
During a tour of the Western North Region on Tuesday, November 5, President Nana Akufo-Addo highlighted the successes of the Free SHS programme, noting that over five million students have benefited since its launch in 2017.
The President acknowledged that while there have been challenges in implementing the policy, the benefits have far outweighed the obstacles, improving Ghana’s education system and providing more students with access to higher education.
ALSO READ: