Private SHS not left out of Free SHS – Nsowah

Claims by the Conference of Heads of Private Second Cycle Schools in Ghana (CHOPSS) that they have been left out on the Free Senior High School (SHS) programme cannot be true, Chairman of Ghana Education Service (GES) Council, Michael Nsowah, has said.

According to him, CHOPSS has been part of the placement exercise since the Computerised School Selection Placement (CSSPS) commenced.

CHOPSS has called on government to partner private senior high schools (SHS) in the implementation of the Free SHS policy.

According to CHOPSS, government has neglected private senior high schools in the implementation of the policy even though they have partnered government over the years to give quality secondary education to Ghanaian students.

Addressing the media in Accra on Wednesday, 13 September 2017, Secretary of CHOPSS, Joseph Dzamase, called on government to as a matter of urgency, include them in the policy.

“We partner government; we partner the Ministry of Education in educating our Ghanaian children. We are happy that the present government has come out with this laudable programme to give education to every Ghanaian child and by extension it means children of private schools are also Ghanaians belonging to Ghanaian parents. So we find it a little bit worrying when the programme has started and we haven’t heard of private schools inclusion. It’s on that basis that we’ve met here to let our concerns be known by the listening ear of government and by extension the stakeholders,” he stated.

But speaking in an interview with Chief Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yensom on Accra 100.5FM on Thursday, September 14 Mr Nsowah said: “Private senior high schools have been part of the Computer Placement System since it started. It is not every child who will want to enrol in public school, it is an issue of choice and I am sure the students who selected the private schools were placed there.

“If the students didn’t select that particular school but is placed there, it will create problems for them because they will be required to pay fees.

“This is the decision that the parents are supposed to take as to whether they will select private or public school. It is not true that the private schools were not added, all the private schools registered under the GES are part of the list of schools. The bottom line is if someone did not select a private school you can’t place the person there.”