Free SHS is our future – Osafo-Maafo

Senior Minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo has stressed that the government’s ‘Free Senior High School (SHS)’ policy has come to right the wrongs and take away the education system that makes vulnerable people fail in life.

According to him, the policy has redefined basic education to include SHS, for it is to prepare young people for tertiary education or equip them with vocational and technical skills which will empower them to contribute more meaningfully to national development.

“Our Free SHS is total, comprehensive and makes real difference in the lives of parents and guardians. It is not some sort of rebate which is only meant to create the impression that we care about you. This is because ‘Free SHS’ is our collective future,” the senior minister stated in Kumasi yesterday.

He was leading a high-powered government delegation to monitor the implementation of the policy in the Ashanti Regional capital, Kumasi.

Included in his entourage were Minister of Trade, Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen; Minister of Aviation, Cecelia Abena Dapaah; Majority Leader and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu; the Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah; and the mayor of Kumasi, Osei Assibey Antwi.

Some of the SHSs visited were Opoku Ware, Prempeh College, T. I. Ahmaddiya, St. Louis, Kumasi Academy and the Anglican.

Mr. Osafo-Maafo noted, “For some time now, about 100,000 students who qualify from BECE each year are unable to enroll because of their inability to pay fees. Government has moved to end this once and for all with the introduction of ‘Free SHS.’”

The senior minister added, “Unless we do this, our educational system will be setting a segment of our population, especially the vulnerable, up to fail in life.”

According to him, the policy is holistic, with emphasis on technical, vocation and agricultural education and training (TVAET), and continued that government was re-aligning and re-organizing the teaching and learning of these fields.

Mr. Osafo-Maafo said the Akufo-Addo government is determined to make the policy succeed on sustainable basis.