Free SHS likely to fail, if you snub us – Private Schools to government

Private Senior High Schools are making last-minute pleas to the government to be captured onto the free SHS program after their initial negotiations failed.

Private Senior High School system is on the verge of extinction on account of the new policy, but the leadership of the Ghana National Association of Private Schools says integrating them into the program will address the shortfalls of the policy.

The government earlier rejected demands by proprietors of Private Senior High Schools to be included in the list of schools absorbing students in the government’s flagship Free Senior High School program.

Currently, none of the private schools in the country were included in the self-placement system which placed students in senior high schools across the country.

Speaking on the issue on Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa 102.5 FM, the Chairman of Ghana National Association of Private Schools, in the Awutu Senya East Municipality, Rev.William Baako, said the public schools are forced to exceed their normal intake as a result of government’s decision to snub them in the implementation of the program.

He asked the government to contextualize the program as remains the case in the implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme(NHIS) to include the private institutions.

“If some one is in the Central region and posted to Bolga to be a Day student, it is worrying situation, however, there may be several private schools within his region he can enroll.

“We made this appeal at the beginning of the program so that we could be captured and be part of it, yet we were still neglected. We are ready for negotiations should government call on us. We won’t have been facing this challenges if the government had listened to us.

As we speak now a lot of prospective students seeking entry into the second-cycle level are sitting at home and have not been placed yet. Those who completed last year are also scrambling for the limited space in the enrollment at public SHSs.

So the number has doubled-up, but with the same inadequate facilities and teachers, a situation choking the system. If we don’t take care we will be repeating the debacle seen in the basic level of education in our SHSs because of the new policy. “