Free SHS take off – supervision is key

The free Senior High School (SHS) policy is one of the flagship programmes of the New Patriotic Party (NPP)  government.  The Akufo-Addo-Bawumia administration has made that programme feasible. 

The free SHS policy, among others, seeks to address inequality and ensure opportunities for all students through the removal of cost barriers, thereby extending free SHS to Ghanaians—particularly those who hither to would not have had the opportunity of SHS education due to extreme poverty.

In other words, the free SHS will address Access, Equity and Quality through pragmatic measures that have been lined up for the successful implementation of the programme.

The unveiling of the free SHS logo by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo (assisted by Vice-President Alhaji Dr Mahamadu Bawumia) at the Flagstaff House, the seat of government, was a clear manifestation that the  free SHS had been born.

Genesis of the free SHS

The 1992 Constitution in Article 25 (1) (b) did state that: “Secondary education in its different form, including technical and vocational education, shall be made generally free and accessible to all by every appropriate means and in particular by the progressive introduction of free education”.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) government of former President John Dramani Mahama started with the progressive free education, getting to the tail end of his administration.

The free SHS policy started as an NPP manifesto promise which culminated into a campaign promise thereof.

Perhaps what gave the free SHS the needed attention and recognition was when President Akufo-Addo in a speech at Okuapemman School 60th anniversary celebration did state for the avoidance of doubt that in addition to the absorbing of all fees for the public SHS in the country (for Ghanaians), feeding will also be free of charge for boarding students while day students will enjoy one hot meal a day for free.

The Okuapemman declaration was followed up with stakeholder consultations, with the Minister of Education, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, meeting key players such as the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS), the Ghana Education Service (GES), Teacher Unions, the Association of Domestic Bursars and the Association of Principals of Technical Institutes (APTI), among others.

The biggest credit for the coming into force of the free SHS will have to go to the framers of our 1992 Constitution for seeing the wisdom in entrenching Article 25 (1) (b) in the Constitution.

It is important to state though that by the dictates of Article 25 (1) (b), free secondary education was envisaged, although no time frame was assigned to its implementation.

Perhaps that is why President Akufo-Addo deserves tonnes of commendation for having the political will to undertake this landmark policy which has been in our fourth Republican Constitution for 25 years.

State Legacy

It is noteworthy that President Akufo-Addo at the unveiling of the free SHS logo called on all Ghanaians to see the free SHS as a state legacy rather than a programme of a political party. That singular show of statesmanship has made the President stand tall in our partisan political dispensation, because after all the free SHS is a constitutional obligation.

The framers of our 1992 Constitution were visionary because by their collective wisdom, they envisaged that a future free SHS will by and large address the issue of Access, Equity, and Quality.

Maiden Placement of 92 per cent 

Let it be placed on record that placing 92 per cent of the entire candidates who sat for the 2017 BECE in public SHS to start the free SHS is not only commendable but a novelty. We are mindful that the Computerised Schools Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) mode of placement is based on meritocracy, which is performance-based.

Now that the free SHS is being rolled out and history has been made, it is refreshing that all the 2017/2018 Form one students who have been placed are to report for academic work this September.

This will make the form one students utilise the academic term to the full, unlike the previous years when form one placement had run up to December, thereby denying the form one students the stipulated instructional hours in the first term of the academic year.

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Teething challenges

As with every new programme, there are bound to be teething challenges. However, it is a great sigh of relief that quite a number of stakeholder consultations have been held, including the setting up of the free SHS Implementation Committee.

The fact that core textbooks have been procured and the money for the smooth takeoff  has been set aside, with the data on food suppliers having been compiled, is an indication that all the relevant players such as Heads of SHS, GES Directors at both the headquarters, the regions and the district/municipal, metro directorates will rise up to the occasion and perform their assigned roles as expected of them.

Much will be expected of the regulatory bodies of the Education Ministry, particularly the National Inspectorate Board (NIB) which will be expected to play their roles as the external evaluator or inspector to demand quality learning outcomes in our pre-tertiary schools.

It is a truism that in Ghana today, the difference between public and private schools in terms of learning outcomes has to do with supervision; which is almost lacking in our public school system.

The NIB will have to set up more inspection panels with lead and team inspectors to oversee supervision in the public schools, including the SHS.

It should be stated that with the coming into force of the 2008 Education Act (Act 778), the Inspectorate and the Curriculum Research and Development Divisions (CRDD) of the GES has become almost redundant because of the creation of the National Inspectorate Board (NIB) and the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA). Therefore, the Inspectorate Division and the CRDD of the GES should be abolished and the staff redeployed to the classroom in the face of teacher inadequacy. 

PTA levies

It is refreshing that the government is absorbing all PTA levies. This will make the freeness of the SHS meaningful. Can it be suggested that Old Students Association should be encouraged in all schools to help support their alma mater with infrastructural needs among others as part of their social responsibilities to the schools that nurtured them? 

All told, let us all see to the success of the Free SHS. After all, as President Akufo Addo stated, it is a state legacy which the nation can bequeath to her citizens and generations yet unborn. It should, therefore, behove all of us to take the education of our children/wards seriously. As the President recently stated, “we will be perpetuating ignorance, poverty and disease if the trainers of generations of Ghanaians remain uneducated.”

We should also take cognisance of the fact that our human capital development can only be realised to an appreciable level if the free SHS succeeds.

The writer is former Headmaster, Okuapemman School and former National Secretary of CHASS.

Writer’s Email:essahienno@gmail.com