Former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Professor Emeritus Ivan Addae-Mensah, has called on the government to re-examine the implementation of the Free SHS policy to ensure that it is sustained.
Professor Addae-Mensah suggested that the government should adopt the measure of cost sharing, where parents who can afford to pay their wards’ tuition fees are allowed to pay for their children’s education. He explained that this measure was going to enable poor and needy children whose parents are unable to pay for their tuition fees, to benefit from the generosity of the wealthy people.
The government is the only financier of the policy at the moment, and this is a situation that has hindered the smooth administration of the schools, the former VC said. He stated that the situation has made it difficult to manage feeding and boarding facilities in the various schools.
According to him, no citizen was saying the free SHS policy was a bad idea, and it was bold of the government to take up such an initiative. However, he said that it was another issue putting together a policy and providing suitable arrangements to make sure such an initiative is sustained. He said that, if the policy maker rushes to introduce a policy without thorough examination of its complications, the result of the policy might not turn out as expected.
“What is so sacrosanct about the free SHS that makes our President consistently refuse to listen to public opinion and continue to stick to a policy that is obviously facing serious challenges and bringing hardships to its beneficiaries, instead of the relief that the policy was supposed to bring?”
Professor Emeritus Ivan Addae-Mensah
Professor Addae disclosed that the finance minister who was supposed to provide funds for the implementation of the policy initially questioned the reason and principle behind certain aspects of the policy.
Challenges Of The Free SHS Policy
At the annual Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Lecture, Professor Addae-Mensah, mentioned that, there were certain challenges that were preventing the smooth and efficient administration of the Free SHS policy and he once again made an appeal to the President to listen to the public and take a second look at the Free SHS policy, its implementation and the repercussions on both the individual and the nation.
Some of the challenges preventing the smooth implementation of the policy according to the Former VC, were inadequate funding, increase in enrollment and its effect on the quality of education, poor infrastructure and poor teacher motivation. He took his audience through a two -hour lecture on educational reforms in Ghana, taking his presentation from the perspective of the colonial era, the pre-and post -independence period under Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, to the current educational situation.
Professor Addae-Mensah further warned the government against implementing a new scheme on the extension of the duration of the free SHS education from the current three years to six years. He said that he hopes that this decision that government is planning on taking will be openly discussed and properly scrutinized.
He indicated the future of the youth is very important and is greatly influenced by their education, therefore they [ government officials] cannot afford to play with the future of the youth with such “frequent experimentations.”
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