The strong determination by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to provide free Senior High School (SHS) education to Ghanaians has paid off as commutatively, some 5.7 million young people have benefitted from the ground-breaking policy initiative since 2017.
Minister for Finance Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam who disclosed this on the floor of Parliament yesterday said the Akufo-Addo government has also spent some GH¢9.9 billion on the milestone policy.
“Mr. Speaker, in 2008, the President, then the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party, announced the policy of Free Senior High School.
“For 8 years, he stayed on that course. On 2nd March 2017, Government allocated GH¢400 million to implement Free SHS. We also indicated that our oil resources will fund the programme, as the President believes that every Ghanaian child must benefit from the oil resources.
“The impact of the programme is evident. To date, a total of over GH¢ 9.9 billion has been spent on the programme and a cumulative total of 5.7 million young people have benefitted from this initiative, many of whom may not have had this opportunity,” the Finance Minister stated.
Presenting the 2024 Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review to Parliament, Dr. Amin Adam said government has continued to implement various social intervention programmes to protect the poor and vulnerable, alleviate poverty, improve the country’s human development indices.
He said there is empirical evidence that education is the great leveller that improves opportunities for any child along the social stratification.
Quoting UNICEF, the Finance Minister who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Karaga, said “Education is a key social and cultural right and plays an important role in reducing poverty and child labour. Furthermore, education promotes
democracy, peace, tolerance, development and economic growth.”
Convinced about these objectives, Dr. Amin Adam said government has, over the last eight years, prioritised education.
“This is to ensure that over time, skills will be improved to impact productivity, grow the economy and improve living standards.
“Mr. Speaker, to complement this effort, we have provided facilities under TVET to empower our young people with employable skills; with 168,000 students enrolled in the 2023-2024 year. “Additionally, we are constructing 10 STEM Schools and 10 STEM Centres across the country, and we have distributed 900,000 tablets for secondary school students. Quality education has been given considerable focus.
“The performance of the students at WASSCE in 2023 is also the best since 2015,” Dr. Amin Adam told Parliament.
Capitation Grant
The Finance Minister said to ease the financial burden on parents and guardians of public basic school pupils, Government disbursed about GH¢38 million as Capitation Grant for the first half of 2024 to ensure schools have adequate resources to provide quality education.
“Additionally, funds have been released for the payment of feeding grants to all public Special Schools (Institutions for the Handicapped) for the 2024 academic year, thereby supporting vulnerable students.
“Mr. Speaker, it is worth noting that the capitation grant has increased from GH¢5.00 in 2016 to GH¢15.00 in 2024,” Dr. Amin Adam added.
