{"id":379607,"date":"2017-12-02T17:16:15","date_gmt":"2017-12-02T17:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=379607"},"modified":"2017-12-02T17:20:51","modified_gmt":"2017-12-02T17:20:51","slug":"moral-case-free-senior-high-school-education-article","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/12\/moral-case-free-senior-high-school-education-article\/","title":{"rendered":"A moral case for Free Senior High School education [Article]"},"content":{"rendered":"
On Tuesday 12th September, 2017 at the West Africa Senior High School, the President, H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo launched the free senior high school education policy ushering the nation into an era where the age old creed of “education as a right not a privilege” assumes its true meaning.<\/p>\n
Indeed, this has been the dream of the forebears of our republic; a Ghana where our children will not be denied the opportunity of senior high school education because of the inability of their parents to support them financially.<\/p>\n
It is indeed a fact, that many young people since independence have been denied the opportunity of secondary education mainly due to financial constraints; hence it came as no surprise when Ghanaians all over the country received the news of the launch of this flagship policy with excitement. It was a dawn of a new era, an era that is not only bringing to our young people hope of a brighter future, a future with limitless and greater opportunities, but it also brings enormous financial relief to the overwhelming majority of parents who find it extremely hard to finance the education of their children.<\/p>\n
If free education means one thing, then it is the fact that the era where pupils dropped out from school for financial reasons, or had their education cut short has become a thing of the past. It therefore came as no surprise that across the length and breadth of the country, the news of the launch was received in most instances amidst the display of joy and celebrations in our streets.<\/p>\n
Free SHS like any pro-poor policy or any policy intervention for that matter has its own challenges. It is however unfortunate that today even problems with SHS three students, their classrooms and any other problems in our high schools are attributed to the Free SHS and pupils benefiting from the intervention.<\/p>\n
So I want to ask, until the start of the Free SHS, were there no challenges in our schools already? Was it all rosy and glossy? Why is the NDC victimising students? Students whose only crime is that, they have chosen to go to school and their country has chosen to pay for it fully.<\/p>\n
It is worth noting, that even before the implementation of the policy, the propaganda then, was that, government intended fidgeting and interfering with WAEC marking schemes so as many students would be affected and failed. This they claimed would affect enrolment causing a sharp reduction in enrolment figures so that government could fund the scheme for the few brilliant ones. It turned out cut-off points were lowered so every child could start SHS education. The effect – enrolment figures have been astounding, unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.<\/p>\n