Mr President, you cannot run a government on intentions alone, we applaud you for your ‘concepts’ but we need what is practical! As good as the free SHS policy is, it wasn’t properly thought through by your government.
The desired outcome of free SHS is to ensure that inequalities within the educational sector are reduced which is laudable. Being an advocate for the downtrodden myself I was excited at the prospects such a policy could provide to our marginalized populations.
Yet it could have been better implemented if it wasn’t rushed to score political points. Firstly free SHS should have been a targeted Programme solely reserved for the poor, this could have been done by making free SHS available ONLY to students who attend and complete a government JHS.
Let the child graduating from Nima cluster of Schools benefit from free SHS not those from private owned schools, parents whose children attend these private schools have already demonstrated their ability to fund their child’s education. If through some form of situational poverty or unforeseen circumstances these parents can no longer fund their child’s education let them apply for free SHS and provide substantial evidence like you would do when applying for a scholarship.
Additionally as a government that prides itself on educational accolades, and the creation of various ministries ‘’aimed at increasing productivity’’, did you really not do any projections? Did you not foresee the infrastructural challenges that were bound to happen? Free SHS meant higher school enrollment and retention; we do not need a rocket scientist to tell us this.
When basic schools which usually are non-residential, are struggling with basic teaching aids, you believed that fully funding a child’s education for three years including feeding was going to be a walk in the park? Now we hear whispers of a multi-track system which will invariably put undue pressure on the Ghanaian child coupled with the unavailability of qualified teachers to see it through. As desperation sets in, some of the proposed solutions are just embarrassing if not despicable. How does the poor child from Wapuli, in the Talensi district/Upper East who dreams of attending PRESEC one day achieve that when the boarding system is scrapped?
As a country, are we now saying because it’s free this child now has to put a measure to his dreams because his government failed to plan? The truth is that the NDC with all its flaws had a better educational agenda for the Ghanaian child.
Progressively Free, focused on improving quality and building the right systems to accommodate intake. In reality, the ‘’overpriced Mahama community schools’’ as described by your government, has become an infrastructural backbone to support your limping Free SHS policy. I believe you got an overwhelming nod from the Ghanaian people because they believed in your promise of a better Ghana, “a Ghana beyond aid” which in itself is laughable at this point!
Source: SAMAD YUSUFU MAHAMA MAIGA
