GETFund to ‘now’ finance Free Senior High School program – MoE

The Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) will now finance all expenditure related to the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) program introduced in 2017, the Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, has said.

Speaking at the 63rd Annual Conference of the Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) in Sunyani, the Education Minister said the decision was taken by President John Dramani Mahama.

“Arguably, that will affect the traditional core mandate of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund). However, we need to sustain the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) program,” Mr Haruna Iddrisu stated.

He indicated that the government would allocate GHC 300 million to end the double-track system in Senior High Schools (SHS) by 2026, explaining that the amount would be utilized to improve infrastructure development.

“That will greatly help the nation to bridge the existing gaps and ensure equity in the categories of ‘A’, ‘B’, and ‘C’ schools,” the Minister in Charge of Education told secondary school teachers at the conference.

The Education Minister added that “In fact, when you have category A, B, and C second-cycle schools, you are unable to satisfy the requirement of equity and equitability, and so there is no equity.”

“If about 65 percent of all candidates are requesting for category A schools, then how are you going to cope as a Minister?”, saying “this year I have received about 60,000 requests for protocols from traditional authorities, political elites, headmasters, PTAs, and Directors General.”

“Ghanaians don’t want to hear the word protocol, yet they are requesting and demanding protocols,” the Tamale South Member of Parliament said at the CHASS 63rd Annual Conference.

He also said all schools under the CHASS would be moved to post-paid electricity meters from January 2026 to tackle what he described as “continuous embarrassment of intermittent power outages in those institutions”.

The Conference of the Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools conference was on the theme: “Ensuring Comprehensive, Equitable, and Sustainable Secondary Education in Ghana-the Role of Stakeholders.”

In other news, the government, through the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund), has released GH¢200 million to cover the cost of registration of final-year Senior High School students who sat for the just-ended West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

“Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) releases GHC200 million to WAEC to cover the cost of registration of 2025 WASSCE candidates,” the Fund said in a social media post sighted by Pretertiary.com.

The Ghana Education Trust Fund, citing the 2025 budget, also said it’s the funding source for the operations of the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) program introduced in September 2017.

Meanwhile, in 2017, after the Free Senior High School implementation, former Minister of Education Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh said the central government would fully fund the Free SHS programe.

Speaking at the Meet-The-Press series the past Education Minister said the government, in its maiden budget statement, allotted GH¢400 million to fund the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) policy.

“This means the Akufo-Addo government will fund the cost of public Senior High Schools for all those who qualify for entry from the 2017/2018 academic year onwards,” the then Minister of Education said.