Deputy Minister for Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, has said it will be difficult for the government to consider and grant the long-standing request of private schools to have Free Senior High School (SHS) students enrolled with them.
The Association of Private Schools, since the introduction of the Free SHS policy and its subsequent double-track system by the government, has lobbied for some of the students under the policy to be enrolled in private schools.
But their incessant calls seem to have fallen on deaf ears as the government has paid no attention to them.
Touching on the issue during an interview on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem on Wednesday, Dr Adutwum noted that it is not deliberate on the part of the government to disallow the enrollment of students into private schools under the Free SHS policy.
According to him, the issue has to do with the preferences of parents who want their wards to be enrolled in the popular schools and not deprived or the less popular schools.
“If you doubt me, just step outside and conduct a short survey and see if parents want their children to go to private SHSs,” he told host of the show, CJ Forson.
“Parents pay high tuition fees at the primary and junior high level so their wards can gain admission to the popular schools like Prempeh College, Adisadel, PRESEC and the rest and not private SHSs,” he added.
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“And the double-track is serving that purpose. The double-track is creating space for students whose parents would want them to have the opportunity of attending such schools. An opportunity which would not have been available had it not been the double- track.
“So until the private schools understand that, they will keep questioning why government is reluctant in granting their request,” he stated further.
He, however, noted that the double-track system would in the next few years be done away with as the government has secured some $1.5 billion to expand the existing infrastructure of the various SHSs to accommodate more students.