Infrastructure problem not peculiar to Free SHS - Dr. Kwabena Tandoh

The Deputy Director General, Ghana Education Service (GES) responsible for quality and access, Dr. Kwabena B Tandoh, has revealed that the issue of infrastructure is not peculiar to government’s free SHS programme.

He stated that even before the introduction of the free SHS programme, the issue of infrastructure in the educational sector had always been under-stressed.

After the implementation of Free SHS, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) asked finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta, to release funds to the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) to enable it expand infrastructure for running Senior High Schools (Free SHS).

The NDC argued that infrastructure remains the greatest challenge that the government’s Free SHS policy has faced since its introduction in 2017 and this has been worsened by the failure of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration to pay contractors despite receiving Parliamentary approval for a loan to do so.

“Thus, the programme since its introduction has been plunged into chaos and glaring challenges that were foreseen by many other stakeholders. These challenges have largely hindered the provision of quality education as required by the Constitution and Sustainable Development Goal Four”, NDC’s Peter Nortsu-Kotoe said.

Reacting to the link between infrastructure and Free SHS, Deputy Director General for GES, Dr. Kwabena B Tandoh, said the issue of infrastructure has always been a hurdle in the educational sector and should not be associated with the Free SHS program.

Dr. Kwabena B Tandoh, cited an instance where over 200 students in Wesley Girls Senior High School were stranded due to lack of infrastructure in 2015 when the Free SHS programme had not been implemented.

“The issue of infrastructure is not peculiar to government’s free SHS programme. The infrastructure issue is a major problem in the sector. Even before the introduction of the free SHS programme, the infrastructure in the educational sector had always been under-stressed. This is the reason for the double track system”, he added.