Ranking Member on Parliament’s Education Committee, Peter Nortsu-Kotoe, has said that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) report on the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy accurately reflects the challenges associated with the programme.
The IMF report criticized the government’s implementation of the policy, highlighting its poor targeting and suggesting areas for improvement.
Speaking in an interview with Citi News, Mr. Nortsu-Kotoe emphasized the need to review the programme to ensure effective support is provided to those who truly need it.
He added that the report validates concerns NDC had raised about the programme over the years.
“The policy is good, but it must be implemented so that it can target people who actually require support or assistance, to enable them go through the Senior high School programme. Having it on a large scale is not bad, but the outcome or output is the challenge that we are faced with”.
“The IMF has really said what the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has been saying over the years that let us review the programme, the pros and cons, what challenges are there, what successes have we made, so that we can improve upon the programme,” Ranking Member on Parliament’s Education Committee stated.
IMF in a country report released ahead of the approval of the country’s $3 billion bailout said, “Ghana spends close to 4 percent of GDP on education with good results in terms of enrolment but poor learning outcomes. The flagship programme Free Senior High School (SHS), which covers the full cost of secondary education, has helped increase enrolment but is poorly targeted”.
The report added that key identified areas of “potential improvement of education spending include strengthening primary education resources, better teacher training, and stronger performance-based
funding practices.”
Former President John Dramani Mahama has on several occasions stated that the next NDC government under his leadership will review the free SHS policy.
The government has spent over GH¢10 billion on free SHS since its introduction in 2017.
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