Cease Arguments About Free SHS- Akufo-Addo
The Commander-in-Chief of Ghana’s Armed Forces, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has encouraged stakeholders to put a stop to destructive criticisms and commentaries about the government’s flagship Free Senior High School (FSHS) policy.
Touting the policy as transformative, he said countless number of talents would have been missed in its absence.
He anticipates professionals from various fields can now be drawn from the beneficiaries of the policy which has received calls for a review.
“Mr Speaker, Free SHS might be labelled by its detractors as a mere political slogan that must be demonised, but it is, in fact, a transformative programme that has broken myths and liberated minds. It is humbling on the one hand and frightening on the other, to think of the sheer number of talents that Free SHS has unearthed that would otherwise have ended their formal education at BECE.”
He added, “I know we will get more engineers, doctors, architects, scientists, writers and poets out of the increased numbers of those attending Senior High School, who will go on to further education. Even if they stop at Senior High School, imagine what a million more Secondary School educated young people will do to our self-confidence and the value of our workforce. That, alone, makes Free SHS worthwhile.”
He thus encouraged critics of the policy to cease their arguments.
“I believe the success of the Free SHS has answered its critics and the arguments about it should cease, and we should simply concentrate on finding ways to improve it. I am particularly glad that the fears about lowering standards have been allayed. Refreshingly, we witnessed, through the 2023 batch of Free SHS students, the best WASSCE results in a decade.”
He said this while delivering the State of the Nation Address (SONA) on February 27, 2024.
President Akufo-Addo added that equal attention is given to Kindergarten, Primary School and Junior High School with the implementation of the Capitation Grant, Feeding Grants to Special Schools, free BECE registration, National Standardized Test (NST), Ghana Educational Outcome Project (GEOP), investment in STEM and TVET education and “No Guarantor” policy, under the Student Loan Trust Fund.
