Free SHS policy review will divert it purpose – Education Minister
Minister in charge of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum following calls for the Akufo-Addo government flagship Free SHS policy to be reviewed has said such a move would go against the purpose for which the program was introduced.
In an exclusive interview with Atinka TV at the New Patriotic Party (NPP) delegates at the Accra Sports Stadium on July 16, 2022, the Minister for Education asked persons calling for the review to consider the purpose of the policy.
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“Ask those who will pay if they will allow their children to go to any school other than the A class schools. I hear people say that those who can afford to pay, I tell you that the rich pay more taxes and it would not be fair to ask them to pay for the policy,” he told Atinka.
In line with the Education Minister, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has also said the popular Free Senior High School (Free SHS) policy would not be cancelled despite the current economic crisis facing the country.
According to him, the ravaging effects of the COVID-19 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.
Speaking at UHAS 10th Anniversary, he said the 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,” His Excellency told stakeholders at the University of Health and Allied Sciences event.
Nana Addo further stressed that adequate measures of ensuring that all Ghanaian children have equal access to quality education, to imbibe in them the requisite qualities to enable them to fit into the global village have been put in place.