Give Free SHS time to succeed – Nana Addo

President Nana Akufo-Addo has appealed to critics of Free SHS policy, to avoid pessimism borne out of partisanship, and consider the long-term benefits of the government’s flagship policies.

The President, at the unveiling of the Free SHS logo, said there was the need for people to understand the correlation between free education and development.

“There will be in any new initiative, some wrinkles and glitches; but if we understand that this is important, not because a political party has made it its mantra and that the promise that it made is being fulfilled, but because it goes to the heart of what it needs to do to get our country going.”

He made reference to the United States of America, which begun moves to transition into to publicly funded high school education in the mid-1800s.

The United States of America began to transition to publicly funded high school education for the vast majority of students, and this culminated in the country creating one of the most educated workforce in the world decades later.

In the United States of America, free public education typically begins from kindergarten to grade 12 (the end of high school).

President Akufo-Addo expressed hope that a similar future lay in store for Ghana, if the Free SHS policy is given the opportunity to harness the talents of the children of Ghana.

“What we need to do is to provide them an opportunity to express themselves. If that opportunity is provided, I think very rapidly, we will see the transformation that we want to see in Ghana.”

“My prayer is that when the programme unfolds, it will do so to the satisfaction of all of us and that a day will come that all of us will recognize that this was an important initiative for the future of our country,” the President affirmed.

The Free SHS programme is scheduled to start with the 2017/18 academic year in September.

The policy will ensure that government absorbs the full cost of public secondary education, with beneficiaries not having to pay admission fees, examination fees and utility fees, among others, according to the government.

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