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North Tongu MP, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa
Former Deputy Education Minister for Higher Education Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa advocated in 2017 for the exclusion of elite and wealthy children from society from the Free SHS program.
For him, the government should have focused only on the poor in society and helping them in school rather than focusing on every child in the country.
Wards of Ministers, Members of Parliament and other government officials by virtue of their positions are ready to meet the educational needs of their wards and therefore do not need government assistance in this regard.
Read the full article originally published on July 21, 2017 on Ghanaweb
Deputy Education Minister for Higher Education Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa urged the government to exclude elite wards in society from the free high school program scheduled to start later this year.
He argues that instead of focusing on every child in school in the country, the government should focus only on the poor in society and help them throughout their schooling. He argues that wards of ministers, members of parliament and other government officials by virtue of their posts are ready to meet the educational needs of their wards and therefore do not need government assistance in this regard. .
“I don’t think the children of MPs, ministers, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, heads of institutions, corporate giants, their CEOs should all benefit from free SHS.
Although he praised the idea of funding students from across the country at the high school level, he argued that the program’s delivery method was “lazy.” According to him, the financing approach is not feasible given the current state of the country’s resources.
“I think it’s not well thought out, excuse my language but it’s a lazy approach. That’s good but it’s a matter of how you implement it… you don’t have all the resources. When you look at this year’s budget, for example, only GHC 400 million were found for free SHS, which can’t even cover all the first years, not even second and third year students.
Rather, it suggests that the government should identify vulnerable and poor people in society and invest the money in their education so that it can reserve some of the limited resources and channel them into other equally important areas of education.
“The government can’t pretend that we don’t have vulnerable people, poor people in year two and three… we can identify vulnerable people who need support so that we can spare some of the support and invest in it. these critical areas. The motivation of the teachers, the logistics, the learning materials, all of these things are essential… You need the resources to have a holistic program for education in Ghana and if you want to move all the resources to free SHS for which you clearly have trouble finding them, and it’s not targeted, I don’t think it’s the wise use of the money, ”he explained.
The Free Senior High School program is scheduled to start in September this year. The program will ensure that all public high school (SHS) students across the country receive free funding from grades one to three.
“The government of Ghana will fund the cost of public high schools for all those who qualify for admission from the 2017/2018 school year,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo assured that the program will cover tuition, admission, library, exam, computer lab and utilities. It will also cover textbooks, board costs and meals which will also cover day students.
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