Free SHS: The overly political nature of policy makes it difficult to admit challenges – Kofi Asare

The Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare has expressed doubt about the government’s effectiveness in addressing the challenges associated with the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy.

According to him, every successful policy encounters challenges, and a policy without challenges has never succeeded.

Speaking to the media in Accra, Mr. Asare stated that the attempt to confront the challenges arising from the implementation of the policy has been “overly political.”

He explained that when such a situation occurs, it becomes challenging for the political class responsible for managing the policy to acknowledge these challenges.

Mr Asare remarked, “It was because of how the policy was conceived, not too different from how the Ugandan Free SHS policy was conceived. Both were conceived on political platforms.

“There is nowhere in Africa, apart from South Africa, that Free Senior High School was not a political promise before it became a policy. So I keep saying that the overly political nature of the policy makes it difficult to admit to genuine challenges.”

He emphasised that the context in which the challenges are raised is sometimes “politicised,” and this context is key and responsible for the defensive posture of the government.

Mr Asare noted that the only challenge surrounding the Free SHS policy is funding, emphasising that it is the only challenge everybody envisaged the policy will face.

“Ghana is the only country in the world where secondary education is heavily boarding over 70% and free. So, it was always going to be a challenge financing the cost of boarding education,” he said.