GES claim Free SHS policy is under review false – MoE
The Ministry of Education (MoE) has described as false and untrue a claim by the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES) indicating the Free SHS policy is under review for quality educational outcomes.
Speaking to Accra-based JoyNews in an interview monitored by AcademicWeek, Prof Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa said consultations with relevant stakeholders are ongoing for the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) program review.
“We can do the analysis and then come up and say that, ok, to give Raymond quality education, it will cost this much. Within that cost, these are the items in the cost. There are some items maybe we can ask parents to pay
Then we will all put it out there and say this item, we can make do of it, and it will not affect quality, this item, I think we can get parents to pay,” the Director-General told the host of ‘JoyNews Upfront’ show Raymond Acquah.
The Executive Director of the Ghana Education Service (GES) indicated that a statistics team has been tasked to do what he described as unit cost analysis as far as educating a student is concerned.
But, the spokesperson for the Education Ministry, Kwasi Kwarteng reacting to the Free SHS policy review comment by the GES Director-General says the government has no plans for parents or guardians to pay for the free school.
“The Ministry of Education (MoE) attention has been drawn to some publications making the rounds which suggest an ongoing review of the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) policy by the Ghana Education Service (GES)
According to the story, the said review is to determine how much parents can pay so far as the policy is concerned. For purposes of clarity, the Free SHS policy is not under the purported review,” the Public Relations Officer stated.
Deputy spokesman for the Education Ministry, Yaw Opoku Mensah on his part has urged members of the general public to disregard any claim that the Free SHS policy is under review as reported by some local media outlets.
“Free Senior High School (Free SHS) policy is not under review. Disregard any publication of a review on the Free SHS Policy as captured in headlines,” Yaw Opoku Mensah stated in a social media post sighted by AcademicWeek.com.
