Free SHS Parents Opting For Boarding Status Must Pay EduWatch Advises

The Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, Mr. Kofi Asare, has urged the government to reconsider its Free Senior High School education policy, proposing that parents opting to have their children reside in the boarding houses should be responsible for the cost associated with it. 

In a ‘Financial Burden Analysis of the Free SHS Policy and Implications on Equitable Access,’ EduWatch recommended that free boarding secondary education should be reserved for students in deprived communities as well as students who are from very homes.

The study, which was commissioned by Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch) with support from Oxfam as part of the DANIDA Strategic Partnership II Project, explained that allowing parents to pay will allow the government to generate some revenue to complement the Free SHS.

According to the study, championed by the its executive director revealed, “In the medium-to-long-term, the MoE must develop and implement a tactic to gradually transition Ghana’s secondary education system from the current boarding-as-a-norm to day-as-norm. Free boarding secondary education should be reserved strategically for students in underserved communities where there is no reasonable commutable access to a secondary school.

“However, parents, who in spite of an chance for their wards to be day students for free, still decide to opt for boarding status must pay for its full cost.”

The study also recommended that the government improve the disbursement of funds under the Free SHS to improve teaching and learning.

“The MoF must improve the disbursement of funds under the free SHS policy. The timely availability of funds (especially at the school level) to procure. items that were previously ‘smuggled’ into prospectus, is crucial to sustain compliance with the current moderate, harmonised prospectus. This will also improve the availability of adequate foodstuffs and other Teaching and Learning Resources in schools to decrease the financial burden on some parents to supply provisions to their wards in school.”

The government in her annual budget tend to spend so much money on the Free SHS education policy. This according to the study of eduwatch, adds up to the financial stress of the government adding that, if parents who are financially stable could absorb the boarding fees, it will be a great relief to the government.Kobina Darlington/