Free SHS is Ghana’s only important project – GES Director-General

Prof Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service says the popular government flagship program, Free SHS is the country’s only important project that must be embraced despite its challenges.

Speaking on Peace 104.3 FM’s Kokrooko show, he admitted the Free SHS has challenges but said is the responsibility of every citizen to help solve the problems citing that majority of the Ghanaians are benefiting from the policy.

“I have heard some people saying the Free SHS should be reviewed to address its challenges but Free SHS is the great thing the country has done and should be welcomed,” the Prof said in the interview monitored by AcademicWeek.

According to the Director-General, some of the challenges confronting the education sector are not a result of the implementation of the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) policy but are problems that have remained unsolved since.

“Not all the problems currently in the education sector are as a result of the Free SHS, some of them we came to meet,” the Education Service official told the host of the Accra-based Peace FM Kokrokoo show, Kwame Sefa Kayi.

President Akufo-Addo September 2017 introduced the Free SHS program to ensure candidates who become successful at the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) continue their education at the secondary level for free.

Some Ghanaians and stakeholders in the education sector have called for a review of the 5 year-old free school policy but the Akufo-Addo-led government has said the program will not be modified, abolished or reviewed.

Reacting to the call for review of the Free SHS initiative, Deputy spokesman for the Ministry of Education, Yaw Opoku Mensah said the government has reviewed the flagship Free Senior High School policy by including TVET.

Speaking at an event, Opoku Mensah said “if you look at the posture of government in relation to free education, the government has rather expanded the program by introducing Free TVET with same nature as the Grammar Schools.”