The National Chairman of the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU), Ambrose Kwadwoza has acknowledged the merits of the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy, but says its free aspect has not been equitable for all Ghanaians.
According to him, while every Ghanaian student would prefer to attend a boarding school, the policy’s implementation has not ensured equal access for all.
Speaking during JoyNews’ National Dialogue on the Free SHS Promise on Thursday, March 21, Mr Kwadwoza said that some students endure long hours in traffic and incur significant transportation costs due to the distance between their homes and schools.
“They spend hours in traffic so if you put all those things into perspective, you will see that the Free SHS policy has not been fair to all Ghanaians,” he said.
The National Chairman of TEWU stated that many students, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, face challenges commuting to schools located far from their homes.
He emphasised that such students bear the brunt of this inequality, stressing that the situation highlights the policy’s lack of fairness.
“So, if somebody will be kept in the boarding house and fed three times and somebody who commutes daily to school and back is fed once, then already the cost barrier that you want to eliminate has been embedded on the person who is commuting from the house and back.”
Addressing the argument that students were already commuting long distances before the Free SHS policy, Mr Kwadwoza explained that, previously, commuting was a choice made due to financial constraints.
However, he said with the introduction of the Free SHS policy of which boarding schools have also been free, “let everybody benefit from what is free for all Ghanaians.”
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