Free SHS policy should be made permanent – Akufo-Addo
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo after describing the implementation of Free SHS policy as a success has called on Ghanaians to accept the popular flagship program to be part of the country’s educational system.
Introduced in 2017, Nana Addo in a speech at the 70th Anniversary of the Tamale Senior High School said he is proud of the results of the Free SHS policy that has seen 1.6 million children continue their secondary education for free.
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His Excellency told stakeholders and students the excellent WASSCE results of the first and second batch of the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) graduates gives further evidence that the Free High School program has been a success.
“There were some who described Free SHS as waste, some said it would destroy our Ivy League schools and some indicated the policy was going to compromise the quality of secondary education but none have happened,” he noted.
Akufo-Addo at the TAMASCO anniversary urged Ghanaians to forgo partisan and parochial politics and agree for the popular Free SHS policy to be part of the national educational system to educate more children in the country.
In a related story, Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Prof Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa has said the Free Senior High School initiative introduced in September 2017 is the only important project in the country.
In an interview monitored by AcademicWeek, 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 Amankwa said on Peace 104.5 FM Kokrokoo show.
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 Ghana Education Service (GES) Director-General told of the Kokrokoo show, Mr Kwame Sefa Kayi.