One of the best things that should ever happen to Ghana is free SHS.
It is national in character, the impact is huge but it is costly. So any government that demonstrates the audacity to implement such a policy must be supported by all, more especially when such a policy is a constitutional obligation.
In the collective wisdom of Ghanaians, the NPP demonstrated convincing commitment in the last election campaign and in their manifesto to implement this policy in a more desired manner and has been offered the mandate to do same. This, however, does not immune the Nana Addo’s government of the inherent deficiencies that come with implementing such a huge policy.
Ghana is not the first country in the world to implement free SHS, however, the development experiences of Ghana and the challenges of Ghana is Ghanaian specific and requires indigenous Ghanaian solutions to them. We are Ghanaians and we know ourselves better. We know the unacceptable levels of economic and social inequality that exist here. We know the kind of salaries and allowances that government appointees take home. We know the kind of salaries and allowances that the article 71 public sector workers take home. We know the ex-gratia of the Ghanaian parliamentarian in his four-year term, and we know the kind of outrageous salaries that ministers and board members take home excluding their entertainment, security, fuel and dressing allowances. We also know the daily struggle of a roadside coco seller just as we know the predicament of an average street vendor. We know the poverty of the ordinary civil and public servant just as we are not oblivious of the conditions of Ghanaian subsistent farmer.
We know about the financing challenges we have with other social intervention policies such as the National Health Insurance Program, the school feeding program and the capitation grant. We are aware of the occasion where wages and salaries of workers are paid on the 4th and 5th of the next month due to difficulty in mobilizing adequate funds. We know about the monthly and quarterly interest payments on our loans which are almost half of our GDP as we still borrow further. We know about our statutory payments to MMDA common fund and GET fund. We have not forgotten about the One million dollars per each of the 216 constituencies annually which amounts to 216 million dollars annually. One village one damp and one district one factory amongst other promises. We recognize the effort of our president in blocking lots of the existing loop holes but we are also not unaware of allegations of others being created under your watch.
Source: Peter Suaka/[email protected]
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It is hard to believe that a parent who pays about ghc4000 a year for his child to attend JSS cannot afford to pay for his SHS education. l am of the view that students who gain admission into the top schools should pay school fees. lf however a student qualifies for any of these schools and cannot pay then government should give him/her a scholarship through the scholarship secretariat. Whatever money that is saved should be used to improve the facilities at the less endowed schools. It is the poor who have difficulties with seeing their children through secondary school and l believe they are the ones the free SHS policy should target so that nobody is left behind.
How do you determine the rich and the poor?
Well the idea of free SSH is awesome, I still think this is just the beginning. However it should be reformed with time. This is what I suggest. I think the government should find a way to allow parents to apply for this scholarship. Applicants should do this yearly so they can be tracked. Students who are receiving scholarship should be encouraged to at least complete college, effort should be made to reduce the drop out rate. windfalls from our oil money should be used to cater for this noble cause.
In the end, which rich parent, going voluntarily to a school and declaring their intension to pay money towards a spevific project in support of the school will be prevented from doing so? They should simply give those monies to the schools of their wards, or better still build librarires, dinning halls etc for such svhools. Then they must tell the authorities it is their contribution to the school after having been stopped from paying fees. Why do we have to worry about these too?
This is one suggestion that looks good on paper but has no practical traction. Let us assume that we have 1,000 Article 71 holders. Not all of them have children of school going age. How much would be saved this way? Let us extend it to all workers in he formal sector. They number about 1 million. The problem confronting policy makers will be: to fix a threshold salary for beneficiaries and then to set up the bureaucracy for assessing and policing. How much is that going to cost, if such are to be set up in all 216 districts of Ghana? By the time we have done all these, would we really have any savings left?