The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has said the introduction of the government’s Free Senior High School policy has put a huge strain on the country’s resources and also raises the challenge of creating jobs for graduates.
Speaking at an event at the University of Memphis in the United States of America on Friday (6 May 2022), Otumfuo Osei Tutu II said, “… the current government has introduced free education up to senior high school, which now ensures that all Ghanaian children from whatever background are guaranteed free education.
“Considering the value to the nation, this must be one of the boldest policies of the nation but it also brings its challenges. It puts a huge strain on the national budget and raises further the challenge about the creation of jobs for the increasing number of graduates,” he said.
The Asantehene said he values the importance of education to the development of the country, hence the establishment of his education foundation to support children from poor backgrounds.
“When we ascended the Golden Stool 23 years ago, we proclaimed education as the ultimate priority of our reign. In furtherance of our priority, we establish a foundation to support the education of children from poor backgrounds.
“It has become so far the largest private intervention in education in the country’s history …”
Watch the video of Asantehene’s speech below:
“No intention to abolish”
However, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, announced on 24 March that the government has no intention to abolish its flagship education programme, Free Senior High School (SHS), despite the economic challenges currently facing Ghana.
Addressing the nation in Accra, Ofori-Atta said: “Let me say this, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has absolutely no intention to roll back on a major policy like Free SHS.”
He added: “We see education as the best enabler for sustainable economic growth and transformation and will do more to improve on it for it to serve more and better our children. All of these measures are aimed at ensuring that we achieve the 7.4% deficit target set in the 2022 Budget.”
The Free Senior High School education policy in Ghana was a government initiative, introduced in September 2017, shortly after the Akufo-Addo government came to power.
Decades of exclusion
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has also argued that the introduction and implementation of the Free Senior High School policy have ensured that hundreds of thousands of young Ghanaian men and women who previously would have had their education cut short at the junior high school level now have the opportunity to further their studies.
The president said that the introduction and acceptance of the Free SHS policy, as promoted by his government, has expanded access to education vastly, enabling young men and women from all corners of Ghana to attend senior high school.
“The policy has reversed decades of exclusion, which denied, on average, 100,000 young men and women annually entry to senior high school education because of the poverty of their parents,” Akufo-Addo said.
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