Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has revealed that government has no intention of rolling back its flagship programme, the free Senior High School policy.

Addressing the press on Thursday, March 24, 2022, Mr Ofori-Atta explained that the Akufo-Addo administration is committed to ensuring that children of school going age will be able to access quality education. He intimated that the programme is a viable method to transform the country.

“Let me say this, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has absolutely no intention to roll back on a major policy like Free SHS. We see education as the best enabler for sustainable economic growth and transformation and will do more to improve on it for it to serve more and better our children”.
Ken Ofori-Atta

Meanwhile, the Minority Leader in Parliament, Haruna Iddrisu, has called for a national conversation on the future of education in the country. Reacting to government’s resolve to maintain its free SHS programme, he intimated that the current educational system cannot be competitive and by extension cannot make “our products competitive” in the future.

“We think there must be a national conversation on the future of education in our country… There must be because we shudder [and] have cause to believe that we are investing in literacy and numeracy and not human capital. It is only in Ghana that at the basic level everybody passes”.
Haruna Iddrisu

The free SHS in recent times has gained attention as a result of comments made by the Information Minister, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, earlier this week. Mr Nkrumah revealed that the government will review all its 16 flagship programmes, which includes the Free SHS.

Following his assertions, the 2020 running mate of former President John Mahama, Prof Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, expressed her expectations on the government’s definition of the reviews that would be applied to government’s flagship programmes.

Speaking at the launch of TEIN App on Monday, 21, 2022, Professor Opoku-Agyemang, stated that she is waiting on government for the meaning of the word “review” from the Akufo-Addo led administration.

Government to aggressively pursue 1D1F and other initiatives

Touching on its other flagship programmes, Mr Ofori-Atta explained that government is aggressively pursuing key interventions such as 1D1F, GhanaCARES and the YouStart programmes to improve its ability to locally produce more goods and optimise the opportunities AfCFTA offers the nation. He indicated that it is important that Ghana reduces its dependence on imports and increase local production.

“Public institutions are reminded of Government’s policy to buy locally produced goods. It is critical that Ghanaians reconsider their preference and consume more locally produced goods to support the economy and guarantee decent jobs for our people”.
Ken Ofori-Atta

To this end, the Finance Minister expressed that government is determined to turn things around and has the requisite skills, discipline and compassion to do it. However, he intimated that to achieve this, Ghanaians must not allow its fortunes to be misdirected by “speculators and naysayers”.