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Rebuttals to free SHS
The Public Relations Officer of the Conference of Heads of Private Second Cycle Schools (CHOPSS), Naphtali Kyei Baffour, offered some pushback on the free SHS policy. Baffour argues that the private sector is the growth engine of the economy, and, as such, he does not welcome a policy that he posits will likely cause the collapse of private senior high schools in Ghana. He encouraged the government to consider carefully how they maintain the education ecosystem.
Additional arguments against the policy, expectedly, came in the form of financial burden such a policy would impose. For example, minority leader Haruna Iddrisu argued that the government’s decision to utilize the Heritage Fund—a fund comprised of reserved oil revenue—would be “fatal for Ghana’s future.” Wisely, he explains that the Heritage Fund is meant to serve as a buffer during challenging economic times. And, though he does not mention it, there is no shortage of examples of nations that financed expansionary policies on commodity exports only to be economically devastated during commodity market troughs.
Columnist Obrempong Yaw Ampofo also disagreed with the policy, but for different reasons. Ampofo prefaced his column by acknowledging how the strength of conviction that a policy issue as substantial as free SHS. He also came right out and said “the free is possible!” Actually, in a way he advocates for a more radical overhaul of the education system—his aim is to see more money directed to technical education. His logic is that you have students who go through SHS, then go on to university, yet upon graduation, are unable to seek employment or are underemployed. “Clearly,” he argues, “we need more technical hands with technical and financial abilities to facilitate the industrialization dream than opening the floodgates to people to the universities.” He opines that former president Mahama’s aims to build 200 community SHSs equally misguided. He provides a compelling look at enrollment statistics, and closes by saying “in my opinion, the free policy in education must happen because we can do it, but I think it is the technical institutions that must be given priority.”
In fairness, there were also many instances of praise for Akufo-Addo’s free SHS pledge. The Defense Network for Democracy (DEFNED) applauded it, saying the initiative will “greatly benefit the middle income household and the poor in the Ghanaian society with great emphasis on quality public education delivery in the country.”
Accountability measures
The Minster of Education, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, has said that “any school head who superintends over a failure of over 90% cannot be allowed to continue operation without accounting to the GES.” Prempeh’s intent, in line with Akufo-Addo’s emphasis on education, is to substantially increase the percentage of students who pass the West Africa Senior School Certificate Exam (WASSCE). While results have been steadily improving, tens of thousands of students fail each year.
Unsurprisingly, not everyone has be pleased with Opoku Prempeh’s remarks. The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) felt that Opoku Prempeh should have consulted with them first, to better understand why the state of WASSCE results is in the shape it’s in. “The very people who you are going to work with, the very people who are going to support you are the people you are threatening without even giving them a hearing,” said GNAT General Secretary, David Ofori Acheampong. Rather, Acheampong suggested involving the teachers in the problem-solving phase before deciding on policy: “if you want to trace the challenges and problems that have resulted in the low performance of some of our students, we cannot lay it wholly on the doorsteps of the teachers.”
A brief history of Act 778
A GES public relations officer, Anthony Kwaku Amoah, penned an opinion piece outlining the 2008 Education Act 778. He explains that the Act is responsible for defining the different levels of education. It divides the education system into three progressive levels: two years of kindergarten, six years of primary education, and three years of junior high school. Originally, the act stipulated four years for SHS, but that was trimmed to three years in 2009. The Act also took strides to provide education access for all—regardless or religion, gender, physical ability, or financial status. He left the reader with a cause for optimism about the future of education reform: a “good thing about education acts and reforms is that they do not just emerge from anywhere and anyhow. They are usually an upgrade of what is already in existence or has existed before.”
Also…
Policy think tank IMANI Ghana has prepared to launch EQUINOX: Expanding Quality, Inclusion & New Opportunities in Education, which will be used to track the free SHS policy.
Foreign ministers from China and Finland contacted Minster of Education Opoku Prempeh to express their commitment to government education initiatives.
Write up on how Ghana celebrated the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.
Sadly, a fire burnt down a section of the female dormitory at Akatsi College of Education in the Volta Region.