Free SHS: Akufo-Addo’s abiding legacy
When I gained admission to the Saint John's School Sekondi in 1980 after passing the common entrance exams, my mother had no money to pay boarding fees so I went to Form 1 as a day student.
Advertisement
In Form 2 and beyond, my mother had to sell her clothes and other personal belongings to see me through. At Parent/Teacher Association (PTA) meetings, decisions were made to increase boarding fees and I was sacked.
I would go home for the fees, but only to meet my mother penniless. I would return to school without the fees, I was denied access to the dining hall. The trauma alone was simply unbearable.
In my case, I had a mother who wasn't educated but was determined to give me the opportunity she didn't get. My dream was to become a brain surgeon and my performance showed it.
Childhood dream
However, the same financial constraints made me opt for allied science (medical Radiology) and along the line, gained admission to the School of Anesthesia to study anesthesiology, but opted to go abroad.
And my quest to travel abroad was motivated, purely, to work and pay my way through medical school to become a doctor and take care of the sick. However, I had a change of plans abroad.
In the end, I had the chance to be trained in the field of medicine, but not a medical doctor which was my childhood dream. This happened due to financial issues in my early education.
If the free SHS policy had been in place at the time, I would have, without sweat, worked my way up the academic ladder, realised my childhood desire of a brain surgeon and taken care of people's brains.
I couldn't realise my ultimate childhood dream of becoming a medical doctor but I had very brilliant mates who sat and passed common entrance exams with me and ended up as farm labourers.
With the academic brilliance of my classmates who ended up as farm labourers due to financial constraints, they would have been pilots, engineers, lawyers and top scientists.It is for this reason that, personally and without recourse to my NPP bias, I'm of unequivocal conviction, that, however, you might judge Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's presidency, free SHS tops!!!
Trauma
Today, a parent does not have to bear the burden of fees our parents did and children from poor homes no longer have to endure the trauma of being sacked from the classroom or denied entry into dining.
I spent the whole day yesterday at the mechanic shop. A man came there in the latest gleaming Toyota Land Cruiser to have his air-conditioning system fixed and he came to sit close to me.
We started a conversation about prevailing economic conditions. I have a policy of keeping my political biases out of my engagements with people I come across, so I can gauge the true temperature.
The man is an engineer with his private consultancy and he said things are difficult. But he said he takes comfort in the free SHS policy because it has taken the burden off his shoulders.
His story was that his senior brother died five years ago and left behind three children, all below 10 years old and he had to take care of them together with his own, who were of the same age.
But the man said because of free SHS, which took the burden of school fees from his shoulders, he has been able to take care of both his children and his brother's, with no stress at all.
Here, we are not even talking about a deprived individual but an affluent person. In effect, the policy is being felt by people of all classes and not just the poor, despite the teething issues.
Leveller
The free SHS policy has levelled the mountains, filled the valleys, removed the barriers and eroded the disparities which existed between the needy and affluent homes in education accessibility.
I am not bothered by what others say about Nana Addo's presidency because as citizens, we are free to express our views irrespective of what the facts say. But the truth is: Free SHS is matchless.
The man Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is from a privileged background; he never had to suffer the humiliation and trauma those of us from poor backgrounds had to go through in our education.
Advertisement
He saw the need to pave the way for every Ghanaian child, irrespective of background to climb to the top of the academic ladder and not have his/ her dreams prematurely cut off due to poverty.
He never went through free education at any point in his life but saw the need to make education free. He said it was possible when those who had free SHS said it was not.
E-mail: newtonoffeija@gmail.com