<<Print>>

Founder and leader of the All People’s Party (APC), Hassan Ayariga has described the introduction of the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy as a scholarship plan by the Nana Addo-led government.

He lauded government for fulfilling its promise – but noted that the policy will be a disaster if it focuses on students grade.

“The Free SHS is very good but I see it as a scholarship instead of a free education for all. What happens to a student with aggregate 37 or 40 when you tell her to better her grades before entering the Senior High School?”

“Then we will end up getting more dropouts than graduates. I think government should just forget about the grades and allow every student who deserves it to get the chance,” he said in an interview with NEAT FM’s morning show ‘Ghana Montie’. 

Hassan Ayariga's comments comes after Education Minister, Mathew Opoku Prempeh emphasized that only students who pass their examination will have the opportunity to enjoy the government’s Free SHS policy in September.

But Ayariga indicated that if government proceed with the “pass BECE and qualify for free SHS” cliché, the programme will remain selective and will benefit students who attended relatively good private JHS than those in the public JHS in the rural areas, especially girls who could not meet the cut-off point”.