The Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, has suggested that persons who can afford to pay fees for the education of their wards be excluded from the government's Free Senior High School (SHS) Programme.
The government is facing huge challenges in financing its flagship education programme, the Free SHS.
However, Mr Ofori-Atta says persons with the means can continue to pay fees for their wards while the government collects data to determine which segments of society benefit from the policy.
"The issue of free education, I don't think its something that any of us can compromise on... It may be that there have to be changes in the way which we are administering it," Mr Ofori-Atta said Monday in an interview on Citi TV.
"I can't take my child to Achimota or Odorgonnor and then leave him or her and drive away and Ken Ofori-Atta not pay anything while I can pay for 10 people. You need to be able to get the data to then be discriminatory in how and who pays and who doesn't pay".
He further explained that it was important to get everybody on the policy before considering other ways to improve it.
"You would rather make a mistake if it is a mistake to get everybody in the system for the nation to then begin to have a conversation and say okay, this is good for us because we want our human capital to be at a certain level but maybe let's begin to adjust it this way. But, I think the issue of opening up and people coming to reality about maybe we could do things a certain way is not a bad thing for a nation's growth."
The Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC) has urged the government to restructure the policy by targetting it at the wards of persons who cannot afford to pay.
The leader of the group Bright Appiah says the Free SHS Policy being implemented is different from what the New Patriotic Party promised in their manifesto.
He said: "We have opened the floodgates for everybody to have the same level playing-field to access education which in itself is not wrong at all. But again, we live in a society which is not equal an there are some people with capacity who can provide.
"So, if we really introduce a programme that thrives on social intervention then clearly we have to define the target".
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Source: Daily Graphic
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It is Nana Addo and his government that have chicken brains. You guys haven't seen anything yet.....Supper Incompetent Government...>Where is Bawumia the great lier of our time. Posterity will judge him!!!!!
Several of Akuffo Addo' policies have no proper and publicly available policy papers backing them. Examples are: ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’, ‘One Constituency- One Million Dollars’, ‘Leveraging Ghana’s Bauxite for infrastructure’ and the ‘Free SHS’ programme. It is common knowledge that the policy papers for these and other announced programmes are still being worked on,”
U see how chicken minded this country is? U knew infrastructure before freebies. And we accepted deceptive lectures from Bawumia the liar. The chicken are back home to roost. We should ***barred word*** we brought it upon ourselves
Well said @Abe. Our leaders are not correct. Why must some benefit and others NOT. Moreover, these wealthy people are the same guys paying the taxes so why should they pay double. NPP promised and they must honor to all. No cheap talk again during campaign
the problem is how do you identify the rich from the poor. So my take is that all those so called first class schools where the rich are known to send their kids should be privatized. Schools like gey hey, botwe, persco, roses, poojoba, adisco, augusco, presec, prempeh, owass, etc should be privatized so that parents who send their kids there are made to pay fees. After all you don't need to go such schools to make it in life. This is a proven fact so no need to debate it. further, these schools will be free to attract foreign students from the sub region who are hungry for Ghanaian education and have the money to pay. These model schools can be rebranded to rake in a lot of foreign currency for the nation. Obviously this will not solve the entire problem but it will contribute to solving it in some way. Prof. Andam once used the fees of fee paying students to expand infracture at Tech. Back then we criticized him but now i see so much wisdom in what he did. By doing that he succeeded in expanding access as well. Anyway...........
Mr. Minister, do you noitice that those who can pay are the same who are teaxed for free SHS implementation? Why shoud I pay double?
Dw3333 ne ahantang is what is killing npp. They don't heed to advice where is Opoku Prempeh. You guys are making Mahama good.
u shd have said this to ur boss. well i am sure he is the one who gave u the thumbs up to say this to the public to see the reactions. in fact as one of the judges of the court of public opinion, i will like to inform that our opinion is not necessary in this case. u are the ones who knows d true wealth of this country and shd know what to do to share it fairly. but if u ask me, i will say making it free for everyone is actually a stup1$d idea. u know what to do from here.
Mob3temopeega haha npp loud mouth patry talk big do small but steal big thiefffsssssssssss
JM come take ur stone. 3bob)ba danduruwa