The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has said the Free Senior High School (SHS) and TVET education are not under review.
Presenting the 2022 Mid-Year Budget Review to Parliament for approval, Mr Ofori-Atta said the government will continue to fund and improve them.
“We shall not compromise on President Akufo-Addo’s commitment to giving all our children the opportunity to be educated from kindergarten to university, without the ability to pay being a hindrance,” he said.
His comments follow reports about the Free SHS policy being under review.
However, the Finance Minister said the government has placed human capital development at the core of the national transformation efforts since 2017.
“We have invested GH¢ 5.3 billion to enable 1,261,495 Ghanaian children access to secondary education under the Free SHS programme at the end 2021 to improve access to education. Out of the 571,892 registered JHS candidates, 555,353, representing 97.1 percent, were placed into SHS this year.”
He continued that: “This is significant we are aware of reported challenges in accessing and transporting food for students in SHS and we are fixing it. In response, we have engaged stakeholders and devised a programme that ensures that schools will not be disrupted and our students are well-fed.
“Government has also recently completed 17 additional projects including classroom blocks, dormitories, staff bungalows and libraries as part of infrastructural
expansion in Senior High Schools to deal with the record increases in student numbers.”
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