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Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta’s suggestion that the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy must be implemented discriminatorily so that those who have the means, pay for their children’s second-cycle education, is sensible, former Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Professor Stephen Adei, has said.

Mr Ofori-Atta, speaking on Citi TV, said: “I don’t think it [Free SHS] is something any of us can compromise on”, adding that: “It may be that there have to be changes in the way in which we are administering it”.

“I can’t take my child to Achimota or Odorgonno and then leave him or her and drive away and Ken Ofori-Atta not pay anything while I can pay for 10 people. … You need to get the data to then be discriminatory in how and who pays and who doesn’t pay”, he said.

Speaking about the next academic year, he said: “You actually going to have, maybe, 180,000 more people but it’s so important, you’d rather make that mistake – if it is a mistake – to get everybody in the system for the nation to then begin to have a conversation and say: ‘OK, this is good for us because we want that human capital and to a certain level, but maybe let’s begin to adjust it this way’”

Reacting to these comments on ClassFM  Tuesday, 24 July 2018, Prof Adei said: “The only thing is that it is difficult to assess the income of people in Ghana, apart from those in formal employment.

“It makes sense but it is not going to be easy to implement such a suggestion. If you are not careful, you will find out that a few higher income-earning people [on] whose salary, taxes have been increased, are going to be the same persons who will fall into that bracket.

“It is a dicey issue, I don’t see why a billionaire should be having their children go to school for free.”