Selective Free SHS roll out may breed educational aparthied – MoE

The Public Relations Officer (PRO) for the Ministry of Education, Kwasi Kwarteng against the call for the review of the Free Senior High School policy says introducing a selective method to the programme may breed educational apartheid.

His comment follows some Ghanaians’ proposal for the government to centred the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) programme on students with poor backgrounds and make those from rich backgrounds pay fees.

The President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Yaw Acheampong Boafo for instance said “Students from comfortable backgrounds who attended expensive basic schools must pay fees at the Senior High School level so that resources are free to fully cater for the poor.

There is also this recent revelation about the school feeding programme from the Auditor General, which should serve as a source of concern for us and call for review and improvements in the operations of the programme, the main beneficiaries of which are people from poor backgrounds.”

But speaking on speaking on JoyNews XSpaces, the spokesperson for the Education Ministry said reviewing the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) policy to exclude parents who can afford fees is a step in the wrong direction.

“Until we build first of all systems and data to be able to know or track the real income and earnings of parents, I am not sure it will be appropriate to. I mean to use the model that you are suggesting.

Other than that if you are not very careful, you reduce the whole education system into educational apartheid where the rich can pay for the highly subscribed schools and the poor may not be able to pay for those highly subscribed schools,” he stated.

Recounting his encounter with parents and stakeholders, Mr Kwarteng said he observed that many individuals claiming they are ready to pay for their children’s education are often middle-income earners.

These individuals, who typically have relatively higher incomes, are frequently willing to go the extra mile to cover fees and secure admissions for their children in some specific Category A second-cycle schools.

This situation the Ministry of Education spokesman said will leave out scores of children from assessing quality education in top-rated schools due to the inability of their parents to afford the fees.

“So for us, the Free SHS is not only a game-changer, but it is also an affirmative policy designed exactly and precisely to also give opportunity for students who will not be able to even afford the fees, in particularly the highly subscribed schools,” Mr Kwa