Africa Education Watch is urging the government, through the Ministry of Education, to initiate the process of phasing out the boarding system in the secondary school system in favour of a more extensive day system.
The education think tank contends that this change will enhance enrolment in senior high schools, as their research findings reveal that the cost of items on the prospectus list is hindering parents’ ability to send their wards to school, despite the free SHS program.
Senior Programme Officer for Africa Education Watch, Divine Kpe, provided insights on the matter during its education financing conference.
“We interviewed twenty parents, and fifteen percent reported that it is because of financial constraints. Two out of the twenty said their wards suddenly declared they were not interested in the school, and three said their wards wanted TVI and wanted to change it but couldn’t.”
Realizing that most parents are struggling to provide for their wards going to boarding houses despite Free Education, he said, “We need to gradually get to a point of having a day as a norm. Currently, we are doing eighty percent boarding and twenty percent day; we can reverse that.”
He shared some of the concerns of parents, stating that the majority face financial constraints.
Divine Kpe further called on the government to leverage data from the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) to make the Free SHS program more targeted.
“In the medium to long term, the ministry should develop and implement a strategy to gradually transition Ghana’s Secondary Education System from the current boarding as a norm.”