Former President John Dramani Mahama has reiterated the call for a review of the Free Senior High School Policy to address the challenges facing the policy and affecting the quality of education.
According to Mr. Mahama, Free SHS has come to stay however should not compromise any of the three pillars of education – access, affordability, and quality.
“Our educational system has witnessed a downgrade because of the policies that are currently being implemented. Sacrificing quality and introducing hidden levy costs negatively affect our agenda to improve our national competitiveness in this competitive and complex digital age. And the situation gets worse day by day not only in terms of quality of education in the public schools but even in terms of the quality of the lives of the children on campus. Politics may have taken a better part of government’s actions and pronouncements but here we are today and the very negative effect and the impact that I spoke about are staring us directly in the face”
Mr. Mahama said this when addressing the 8th Biennial National delegate’s conference of Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS) ongoing in Koforidua on Wednesday, August 17, 2022.
He bemoaned that the current implementation module of the Free SHS policy is unsustainable and eroding the quality and standard of education at the Secondary education level.
He, therefore, reiterated the call for a national conversation on the Policy to be reviewed.
Mr. Mahama suggested a Bursary system for instance that targets the poorest families and households could be introduced and brings onboard private senior High schools.
“For instance, one can ask, wouldn’t a bursary system that allows students access to secondary education at schools of their choice whether public or private not have served as better than the current blanket free Senior high school system? This bursary system could have been targeted at the poorest families and households in our country so that they could use that bursary to attend a school of their choice so that government will pay for their education whilst they are in that school”.
President of GNAPs Dr. Damascus Tuuroson accused the Ministry of Education of a deliberate attempt to collapse private schools through unfavorable policies and neglect in policy interventions.
He said private schools were sidelined in the national standardized test, their teachers were denied training on the new curriculum, unfair computerized selection and placement system, and more painfully the introduction of entrance exams for private students seeking admission in category “A” SHS owing to 30% quota priority Policy by the ministry of education.
The President of GNAPS served to notice the association will go to court to challenge the constitutionality of the government’s 30% slots in ‘Grade A’ Senior High Schools, reserved for students in public Junior High Schools.
Source: Mybrytnewsroom.com/Obed Ansah
