Patrick Awuah Jnr, the President and Founder of Ashesi University, has strongly opposed any consideration of cancelling Ghana’s Free Senior High School (SHS) programme.
Speaking on The Point of View with Bernard Avle on Channel One TV, Mr Awuah Jnr underscored the critical need to preserve the Free SHS initiative, describing it as a constitutional mandate and a vital investment in Ghana’s economic future.
“The notion that you should educate everybody through secondary education is correct. That is what is in our constitution education should be progressively free through secondary education. There’s a very strong correlation between the GDP of countries and the percentage of people who got into secondary education, very high correlation.
Reflecting on the implementation of the programme, Mr Awuah Jnr acknowledged both its challenges and achievements but stressed the importance of looking forward rather than debating its existence.
“Everybody is getting a good secondary education. Your GDP growth is going to be stronger than if you don’t have that. The way the conversation has happened in Ghana and the decisions have been made, In my view, there has not been enough patience as a sort of sharing ideas and trying to come up with a consensus.
“So the debate that was happening say 10 years ago about whether we should do it now or not, that’s a valid debate. As you probably know, at the time of the debate you should take a gradual approach. Say there’s a plan of what we gonna do four years from now, six years from now and you live by the constitution and say progressively free and you do a ten-year plan and you gonna get there, sort of my style and it happened at once.
He added, “And it happens all at once, some positives have come out of that and some difficulties have come out of that. Now, we are ten years in and I think that the conversation that we were having ten years ago is not the conversation we should be having today. Today, we have kids in the classrooms, you cannot tomorrow dismantle Free SHS. It’s not something that should be part of the conversation.”
He emphasised that the focus should be on improving the quality of education and ensuring adequate resources for students.
“What you should be thinking is what you can do to improve the quality for all children, that should be the entire focus.”
As political parties prepare for the December 7 general elections, many have proposed plans to enhance the Free SHS initiative.
Their ambitions focus on aligning the programme with the demands of a modern workforce, ensuring students are equipped to thrive in today’s dynamic job market.
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