Ghana’s flagship Free Senior High School, FSHS, education policy will be abolished if the National Democratic Congress, NDC, win political power in Ghana in 2024.
The FSHS education policy has helped to reduce poverty among many Ghanaian parents who could not afford to send their adolescent kids to secondary schools due to the exorbitant fees some of the schools demand from parents.
Mr. Seth Terkper, a former Minister for Finance under the John Mahama administration, believes that the free secondary school education policy is a bad idea, promising that a future NDC government will abolish the policy and force parents to pay to educate their kids.
In the view of the former NDC Finance Minister, the FSHS education policy is too costly for the country to sustain it going forward, adding that there are millions of parents in Ghana who have the financial wherewithal to pay for the education of their kids.
To put it in perspective, Ghana spends about 3.99% of its Gross Domestic Product, (GDP), on education.
Speaking on Citi FM’s ‘Eyewitness News’ program in Accra, on Tuesday, Mr. Seth Terkper made it clear that the FSHS policy is a huge drain on Ghana’s limited financial resources, serving notice that if the NDC wins the general elections in 2024, Ghanaian parents would have to understand that they will be made to pay for the cost of educating their teenagers at the secondary school level.
Prior to the implementation of the FSHS policy, many teenagers were found on farms and on the streets of towns and cities across Ghana, engaging in petty trading, begging, prostitution, and committing petty crimes. Some of those kids were also exploited by unscrupulous gang members who used them as mules to sell drugs on the streets.
However, many educators and supporters of the FSHS policy disagree with Mr. Seth Terkper. They believe the FSHS is one of the best policy initiatives from the ruling New Patriotic Party, NPP, government. Many applaud the bold decision taken by the President Nana Akufo-Addo’s administration to ensure that education does not become the preserve of the few rich in society.
Since the introduction of the FSHS policy by the NPP government after Nana Akufo-Addo was sworn-in in 2017, Mr. Seth Terkper has been one of the most outspoken critics of the policy year after year.
Checks by Ghanaspeak.com have uncovered that as far back as 2012 when Nana Akufo-Addo ran unsuccessfully to unseat ex-President John Mahama, Mr. Terkper had opposed the idea of offering free secondary education to every Ghanaian adolescent.
However, in 2016, Akufo-Addo’s FSHS policy idea resonated well with Ghanaians, especially parents who struggled to keep their kids in school due to the ravages of poverty and lack of access. Nana Akufo-Addo won a landslide victory at the polls since many Ghanaians agreed with his FSHS education vision.
Before the introduction of the FSHS policy by the NPP government in 2017, the secondary school enrollment ratio was fluctuating between 48.8 and 68.9 percent from 2009-2016. Since then, Ghana has witnessed continuous growth in secondary school enrollment. The enrollment ratio now stands at 78 percent.
The FSHS policy, apart from providing free secondary education to every Ghanaian adolescent, also provides free boarding facilities and free meals to help address the nutritional needs of those growing teenagers who sometimes go to school to learn on empty stomachs.
Under the FSHS policy, Ghana has also seen an accelerated improvement in educational infrastructure. Thousands of educational facilities have been upgraded to acceptable levels, including the construction of new school buildings with access to electricity, water, internet, science laboratories, and sporting facilities in every region of the country.
The rush by some teachers to look for teaching opportunities in the cities has also decreased under the FSHS policy. Many educators and teaching professionals are willing to accept postings to schools in rural areas, some of which are new and have better facilities than even some of the well-endowed schools in the cities.
It however remains to be seen if the abolishment of the popular FSHS policy, will be part of the main campaign message of the NDC, heading into the primaries leading up to the 2024 general elections. Many Ghanaian parents will find it hard to support the decapitation of the single most impactful policy initiative in the country, according to some, by a future NDC government.
