The Ministry of Education is brushing away calls for a review or scraping of the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) programme.
The ministry’s Public Relations Officer, Kwasi Kwarteng, stressed that the overall cost of not implementing the programme far outweighs the cost of implementing it.
According to him, the country risks having hundreds of thousands of its young people staying without secondary education without the flagship programme.
“The cost in not implementing Free SHS in the long term has very dire consequences on us as a nation because it means that every year we will be having about 100,000 students that will not have access to education up to the secondary level and that will be dangerous for our socio-economic transformation that we seek to achieve. As compared to the current cost that we incur as a people, we should have the conversation within the proper context,” he said.
Kwasi Kwarteng’s comment comes on the back of pressure mounting on the Akufo government to review the policy with the latest coming from the quarters of the Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission, Prof. Stephen Adei.
Prof. Stephen Adei explains that the GH¢7.6 billion expenditure on the programme over the past five years is taking a toll on Ghana’s economy.
Other civil society organizations have also called for a review of the programme including suggestions that the programme be limited to persons who are genuinely poor and unable to fund their secondary education.
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