Free SHS policy is rather affordable SHS – Twene Jonas
US-based Ghanaian, Twene Jonas popularly known as the system is working has described the current Free Senior High School (Free SHS) introduced in 2017 as an affordable SHS saying it is not free as the government has labelled it.
In a viral video sighted by AcademicWeek, the Glass Nkoaa hitmaker said even though the policy is a step in the right direction but the fact that parents are buying school trunks does not qualify the Free SHS program to be called free.
According to him, the Free SHS implemented by the Akufo-Addo government to ensure final year JHS students who pass the BECE get secondary level education for free should be described as affordable SHS and not Free SHS.
“So somebody going to school you claim is free and going to buy a trunk and other items means the school is not free but affordable, students paying fees to sit for an examination also means it is not free but affordable,” Jonas stated.
The Social media commentator said that what the American government has introduced is what can best be described as free school adding that desks, beds and all students need to study in school including textbooks are free.
Meanwhile, His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said the popular government flagship Free Senior High School (Free SHS) initiative despite the country’s economic challenges would not be cancelled or reviewed.
Speaking at an event, he said the ravaging effects of the Covid pandemic and the Ukraine invasion on the world economy would not deter the government from providing free quality education at the basic and secondary school levels.
Akufo-Addo indicated that the central government has identified education as an “equalizer of opportunities” and hence would continue to channel resources into the sector to ensure the effective training of the Ghanaian child.
“I want each of them [children] to look in the mirror every morning and know they can achieve anything they dream of when they complete tertiary,” the President said at the University of Health and Allied Sciences 10th Anniversary.
