EDUWATCH takes on NUGS President over comments on Free SHS

Exec. Dir EDUWATCH, Kofi Asare

Executive Director of the Education Think Tank, Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare, has debunked the assertion by the President of the National Union of Ghana Students, NUGS that giving parents the option to pay school fees for their wards under the Free Senior High School Programme will create classism in schools. 

The NUGS President, Dennis Appiah Larbi-Ampofo, has said that treatment of students will vary should government explore such an option. 

But in an interview with GBC's Isaac Asare, Executive Director of Eduwatch, Kofi Asare argued that allowing parents who are high income earners to contribute part of the cost of the flagship programme is the best way to support government meet 100 percent cost of the intervention. 

He said the outcome of free SHS is laudable, but management of the policy needs to be enhanced to achieve efficiency by allowing beneficiaries to part in the funding regime to sustain it. 

He hinted that for the past five years, government through the finance ministry has been able to provide a maximum of 60 percent of the funding required for the policy at the end of the year. 

The renowned educationist further revealed the average disbursement of funds for the free SHS including cost of feeding is between 60-65 percent, an indication that if government is able to get funding support of about 35-40 percent from other sources, challenges with the implementation of the flagship program will be resolved especially with food supply which covers over 70 percent the overall cost of the policy.

GBC