Free SHS that takes too many students – bitter Mahama cries

General News of Sunday, April 14, 2019

Source: dailyguidenetwork.com

2019-04-14

Former President John Mahama appears to be very bitter about the access given to thousands of Ghanaian students, especially those from poor homes, as part of the Free High School High School (SHS) program.

He expressed his frustration at the large number of students enrolled in the program, even though poor students are the ones who benefit most.

Speaking at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) in Central Region on Thursday, April 11, 2019, Mr. Mahama said, "What we are doing with this huge influx into the secondary school system. [due to the free SHS programme]… will affect the quality of public schools. "

He then predicted the end of the pro-poor agenda, stating "and we will soon find a system in which people will lose faith in public schools and everyone will pay to go to private high schools. This is the danger we are talking about. "

Since the beginning of the program in September 2017, the administration of President Akufo-Addo has welcomed a large number of students.

The first year of the program saw an increase in enrollment, with approximately 400,000 students beginning their studies in the 2017-2018 academic year.

This strong participation forced the government, through the Ministry of Education, to introduce the dual track system, which aimed to give many more students the opportunity to benefit from teaching. free secondary school.

An amount of 1.682 billion GHc was earmarked for the implementation of the Free SHS program in the 2019 budget.

This means that the number of registrations will increase even more exponentially.

Anger

But Mahama seems even angry at the huge financial investments the government is making to empower Ghana's children.

He said he was concerned about the government's investment of 2 billion GH ¢ in the only free high school in the second half at the expense of other sectors of the economy.

According to him, the high investments in Free SHS tend to have a negative impact on education and to collapse the sector.

The former president, of which the National Democratic Congress (NDC) claims to be a socialist party and as such supposed to be pro-poor, opposed the Free SHS program that benefits poor students and their families. parents.