Free SHS is good but must be reviewed – Educationist

An Educationist, Samuel Ziga, has called for a review of the Free SHS policy saying the policy in its current state is not sustainable.

According to Mr Ziga, parents who are in the position to pay fees must be allowed to pay to ease the burden on the government and also help the government undertake some infrastructural development in the various public schools.

The Free SHS policy implemented by the Akufo-Addo-led administration in 2017 has been blighted by several challenges including lack of desks, reduced contact hours and poor infrastructure to accommodate all the beneficiary students.

But the President on Saturday said the introduction and implementation of the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy has ensured that hundreds of thousands of young Ghanaians who, previously, would have had their education truncated at the Junior High School level, now have the opportunity to further their education.

“The policy has reversed decades of exclusion, which denied, on the average, one hundred thousand young men and women, annually, entry to senior high school education because of the poverty of their parents,” the President made this known on Saturday, 29th May 2021, when the University of Cape Coast conferred an Honorary Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Leadership degree on him, at a ceremony at the campus of the University.

Speaking on the Morning Starr on Monday, Mr Ziga said there must be a holistic and participatory review of the free SHS policy to make it better and sustainable.

“The Free SHS policy, I’ve always said anyone who says it’s not good doesn’t want anything good for the country. But every citizen in Ghana knows that it’s facing challenges…For teachers who are teaching in SHSs, materials should be ready for them. We should give them free will."

“When people talk about review, people look at it from a political angle because someone said when he comes, he’ll review it. We can’t continue that way. For me, payment of fee is not a problem but because they said it’s free, that’s why the government can’t come out. I think those who can pay should be allowed to pay.”