{"id":374576,"date":"2017-11-17T07:20:54","date_gmt":"2017-11-17T07:20:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=374576"},"modified":"2017-11-17T07:20:54","modified_gmt":"2017-11-17T07:20:54","slug":"budgetary-allocation-for-free-shs-woefully-inadequate-ablakwa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/11\/budgetary-allocation-for-free-shs-woefully-inadequate-ablakwa\/","title":{"rendered":"Budgetary allocation for Free SHS ‘woefully inadequate’ – Ablakwa"},"content":{"rendered":"
National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for the North Tongu Constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has described the government\u2019s budgetary allocation for Free SHS as woefully inadequate to support the programme.<\/p>\n
According to him, government would need at least two billion cedis to support Free SHS in 2018, 800 million cedis more than the amount that was allocated to it in the budget.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”wyNSSYNiYum3Eo5MHbswsZjwx1kcPnXB”]\u201cIt is clear that there are real challenges, and sadly, we didn\u2019t hear of a Marshall Plan. I thought there was going to be a huge plan based on the assurances the President had given the nation that he was aware of the challenges with free SHS and that the nation should expect that it will be addressed soon. Unfortunately, the 2018 budget did not present a Marshall Plan to address these challenges. What we are seeing is an inadequate allocation in the budget; 1.2 billion is woefully inadequate for four terms for the 2018 fiscal year,\u201d the former deputy education minister said on the Point Blank segment of Eyewitness News<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The New Patriotic Party (NPP) government\u2019s flagship free Senior High School programme was launched in September as part of measures to ensure all Ghanaian children are educated, \u00a0at least,\u00a0up to the SHS level.<\/p>\n However, since its introduction, the programme has encountered a number of issues, mostly in relation to the capacity of the schools and the availability of desks <\/a><\/strong>for and other infrastructure for students.<\/p>\n