Most Reverend Charles Gabriel Palmer-Buckle has suggested the Free Senior High School programme be reviewed.
“I support 100%, the free SHS policy,” he said at the launch of a book titled, ‘Accra ACA, Bleoo, The History of the Accra Academy from James Town to Bubuashie’, adding: “It is now time to have a stakeholder engagement to review the free SHS”.
The 726-page book was written by Simon Ontoyin, a graduate of the University of Ghana and an alumnus of Accra Academy.
In the cleric’s view, the programme can be tweaked to serve better, its purpose of providing free secondary education to all children irrespective of their financial background.
In July 2018, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta made a suggestion that the programme should target the poor.
“I can’t take my child to Achimota or Odorgonno and leave him or her there and drive away and not pay for anything while I can pay for ten people,” he said.
He noted, however: “We need to begin to get the data to then be discriminatory in how and who pays and who doesn’t pay.”
The need to make the programme a targeted one was first proposed by some groups like IMANI Africa and the National Association of Graduate Teachers, NAGRAT.
“Each soul is important. You would rather make that mistake, if it was a mistake, to get everybody in the system for the nation to then begin to have a conversation and say: ‘This is good for us because we want our human capital to be at a certain level but maybe, let’s begin to adjust it this way’”.
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. |
The free SHS is good. It will increase our literacy rate. Even when you want to be a trotro driver, a hairdresser, a trader, you can communicate well with people. The problem is we are selfish and not truthful. Who will own up and say I can afford so I will pay. We need the modalities to know who has money to pay for the fees and who has no money to pay. Are we sincere to own up.
The free for all should be a free for all. However the review should rather be for the intake. Private school students should only have aggregate 10 to qualify. Anything higher, the student must pay. Public school children, aggregate 15 to qualify, anything higher, the student must pay. The children would be forced to study, raising the standard.
A wise suggestion from the Archbishop and Nana Addo government is the right government to do the review to improve it and identify the ways forward in terms of funding and sustainability. NDC was against Free SHS and indeed they said it was impossible to do it hence Mahama's call for review was treated with suspicion or interpreted as outright cancellation of Free SHS. I think NDC should be careful when talking on important national programme like this, including e-levy. They are all excellent programmes but NDC leadership are sometimes not strategic and like propaganda too much.
You guys are the reason Ghana is in a mess. You sat down when people were saying review meant cancel, today review means look into something again, no wonder most of your a struggling with diverse maladies because you are hypocrites.
The Cleric's call for review is appropriate. I think, though, that the issue of equity and making people pay for the quality of the education of their children should be handled in another way where people are compelled by a manipulated education environment to put their money where their mouth is. Simply requiring High Schools to only admit students from a set geographic demarcation within which the school is located will erase all these equity imbalances. If Achimota is only open for students living within a certain GPS codes of the school, and all High Schools admit students based on similar criteria, then people who have the means will invest in the public high schools of their respective GPS codes, and that of their families. That way, if you think you do not like the quality of instruction within your geographical area, and you do not want to get involved in improving the school even though you may have the wherewithal to help, then you will be welcome to get your child to a private school (which will receive zero public support) and the whole country will not have to pay for your child's education. Also, the school governance will be mandated to be local based, so that the local community will vote in a public election to select, say, 5 school board members with the responsibilities of interviewing and selecting a Headmaster. The government will pay the Headmaster but 60% of his annual evaluation for competency and effectiveness will be through an objective process managed by the elected board. Mr. Priest, I assure you that this will go a long way to support the goal you seek.
I agree with the bishop 100 per cent, I suggest the review should be in the form of creating SHS Eduation Trust Fund where parents, donors who feel to contribute to the fund could do so. The government can fall on it to augment her budget for education from time to time. I bet you, we may even get some Ghanaians in the diaspora to contribute to the fund.