A former Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Charles Ahetor Tsegah, says the decision to roll out the free Senior High School education policy this year is feasible, only if Government will make the needed sacrifice in terms of the national budgetary expenditure.
According to him, President Akufo-Addo’s announcement of the implementation of the policy from this September, is a step in the right direction as it is guided by the constitution.
The president over the weekend announced that government will fully implement the free Senior High School (SHS) policy from 2017/2018 academic year this September.
According to him, this was to take away the financial burden on parents.
Speaking at the 60th anniversary of Okuapeman SHS in the Eastern Region, he said, “By free SHS, we mean that, in addition to tuition which is already free, there will be no admission fees, no library fees, no science centre fees, no computer lab fees, no examination fees, no utility fees; there will be free textbooks, free boarding and free meals, and day students will get a meal at school for free. Free SHS will also cover agricultural, vocational and technical institutions at the high school level. “
Policy Think Tank, IMANI Ghana has already questioned how the government will fund the policy but speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, Mr Ahetor Tsegah who is the Executive Director of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) of the GES said, “I think that it is too quick to question whether or not we cannot do it. I believe we can take our time and do some sacrifices here and there in our national spending arrangements and find the resources to plug into education.”
I think that everything is doable economically when you apply a proper scale of preference. It is possible in education as long as we get a very regular and timely allocation of our education resources.”
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)