Re-module Free SHS Policy – Government told

Acting Executive Director of the Institute for Education Studies (IFEST), Peter Anti Partey has urged to re-module the Free Senior High School (SHS), policy.

Mr Partey has predicted an increase in the financial woes of the programme if nothing is done about the policy’s current module.

“Government must think of how to re-module the free SHS policy because the burden that policy alone brings is too much”, he said.

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Mr Partey was speaking on Adom FM’s Morning Show Dwaso Nsem Wednesday concerning the Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta’s suggestion that the Free SHS policy must target people who lack the financial capacity to pay their wards’ fees.

Mr. Ofori Atta had admitted in an interview with Accra-based radio, Citi FM that there was the need for changes in the way the policy is being administered going forward but said it was important to get everybody on the policy before considering other ways to improve it.

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“The issue of free education, I don’t think it’s something that any of us can compromise on…It may be that there have to be changes in the way we are administering it,” Mr Ofori-Atta said in the interview.

Mr Partey who was contributing to Mr Ofori-Attah’s comments on Adom FM said the success or failure of the policy even though depends largely on the political will of the government, it also lies with school managers who are the ultimate implementers of the policy.

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The problem of increase in enrolment, he noted emanates from the fact that the financial barrier of accessing education have been eliminated hence those who will not have been able to go to school can now go.

He said varying the policy is “not a bad thing” and called for a national conversation on the popular policy.