Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch), a prominent educational policy think tank, has voiced concerns that the proposed government’s Free Senior High School (SHS) Bill is being positioned more as a political legacy than a sustainable educational reform.
The bill, which will soon be presented to Parliament, aims to regulate the policy and ensure its sustainability.
The policy, which has been a cornerstone of the Akufo-Addo administration, seeks to remove financial barriers to secondary education by covering fees, textbooks, boarding, and meals.
While the initiative has been praised for increasing access to education, particularly for girls, Eduwatch argues that the bill’s timing and the government’s approach suggest a focus on political gains rather than long-term educational benefits.
Speaking in an interview with Umaru Sanda Amadu on Eyewitness News on Citi FM on Tuesday, the Executive Director of Eduwatch, Kofi Asare said the Free SHS policy had already been covered under the Pre Tertiary Education Act for which reason he did not understand why the government wanted to have a new law on it.
He also noted that the bill was the least of the challenges the policy faced that required urgent attention.
“I am a bit lost because in December 2020 Parliament passed a law called the Pre Tertiary Education Law which is Act 10(49). This law which was assented on 29th December 2020 has free SHS captured under section 3 which says that ‘Secondary education in its different forms including TVET shall be free and accessible to all eligible candidates. So this provision in the pre-tertiary education law is to give legal effect, is to give binding effect.”
“…I think that perhaps the only reason is, it is a legacy reason. It looks more political legacy kind of style. But in reality, if you ask me the top 10 challenges or problems that require urgent attention on the Free SHS policy, the law would not be in the [space] of 10,” he stated.
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Meanwhile, Peter Nortsu-Kotoe, Ranking Member on Parliament’s Education Committee, has described as unnecessary the government’s move to lay a bill on Free SHS before Parliament.
He questioned the necessity of a law to regulate or entrench the Free SHS programme, citing the absence of an official policy document on free SHS despite requests made to both the previous and current education ministers over the past seven to eight years.
The Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo Markin stated that the enactment of the Free SHS Bill would transform the policy from a mere aspiration into a justiciable right, empowering citizens to seek legal recourse if the policy is not implemented.
However, speaking in an interview on Eyewitness News on June 11, the ranking member, Nortsu-Kotoe referenced the constitution’s provision, Act 25 (1b), which mandates that secondary education, including technical and vocational training, should be progressively made free—a process that began in 2015 under the leadership of President John Dramani Mahama.
He suggested that the current government’s implementation of the Free SHS policy aligns with public expectations, implying that additional legal protections are superfluous.
“There is no need for any law to regulate or entrench the Free SHS programme. As a committee on education, we have asked the previous minister and the current one that we want to see a Free Senior High School policy or document and for seven to eight years now we have not been able to provide the committee with the policy document. If you don’t even have a policy on what basis are you going to pass the law? Read full story here >>>
