Free SHS set to take off next year – Minister
Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the Minister of Education, has assured the nation of set plans to implement Ghana’s Free Senior High School (SHS) education policy, next academic year, despite the present economic challenges.
He said per the 2017 Budget Statement presented by the Minister of Finance to Parliament, earlier this year, it would cost the Government GH¢400 million to implement the programme for the 2017/2018 Academic Year.
Therefore, cost of operation had been captured in 2017 fiscal policy statement, and approved by Parliament.
Dr Opoku Prempeh gave the assurance when the Ministry of Education Ministry Education took its turn at the Meet-the-Press series, in Accra, on Thursday, to brief the media on the current status of the implementation of the Free SHS policy.
He said the Government was committed to keeping its promise of ensuring wider access to secondary education for all Ghanaians.
He, however, said although free secondary education had existed in various forms such as scholarships and bursaries to minimal populations since independence, the present Free SHS policy would further extend these benefits to all students in public senior high schools for equity, quality wider access.
“We are not oblivious to the fact that it may mean many people going to school,” he pointed out, but said, having people educated was better than ignorance in all its forms.
The Government would, therefore, persist with its priority to offer free secondary education to all those who qualified.
He mentioned some of the fees to be absorbed under the programme as the one-time fee items for first-year students, which amounted to GH¢435 per day student and GH¢438 for boarders, as well as recurrent fee items of GH¢101.47 and GH¢105.47 for day and boarding students, respectively.
Dr Opoku Prempeh said a unique aspect of the Free SHS policy was that it covered feeding for boarding students and a single hot meal for day students, books, Parent Teacher Association (PTA) dues as well as teacher motivation fees for all beneficiaries.
He, however, said since the package covered each beneficiary for a period of three years, students were expected to bear the responsibility of studying hard and passing their exams; else they risked losing their slots, just as under every scholarship programme.
He, therefore, called on parents and all stakeholders to support the students to maintain high standards and improve the quality of education.
Source: GNA