The free Senior High School education programme being promised by President Akufo-Addo is not absolutely free, the Institute for Education Studies (IES) has said.
President Akufo-Addo detailing his policy over the weekend at the 60th Anniversary celebration of Okuapeman School said “by free SHS, we mean that, in addition to tuition which is already free, there will be no admission fees, no library fees, no science centre fees, no computer lab fees, no examination fees, no utility fees; there will be free textbooks, free boarding and free meals, and day students will get a meal at school for free.”
The President added further that “Free SHS will also cover agricultural, vocational and technical institutions at the high school level. I also want to state clearly again that we have a well-thought out plan that involves the building of new public Senior High Schools and cluster public Senior High Schools.”
But the Executive Director of IES in an interview on Class FM said the free components mentioned by the president, will cover 52 per cent of the current fees paid by boarding students and 90 per cent of that paid by day students.
“As we speak, last academic year, approved fees for boarding [students] was around GHS1, 100, GHS1, 200 and that for day students was GHS610, of course government paid GHS54 out of it. If you look at the fee component that the president is talking about.
“If you take those fee components from the price build-up of the students’ fees, it will amount to about GHS553, so, invariably, per the fee components that the president wants to pay, we are looking at 52 per cent of the current fees that [boarding] students pay. Government is not absolutely granting free SHS, it’s partially granting free SHS.”
Dr. Armah added, “The fee component captures about 90 per cent, so, I think that they are well OK but for boarders, [it’s 52 per cent].”
President Akufo-Addo’s free SHS policy will kick off in September this year.
