Africa Education Watch, an education think tank, has suggested that parents who choose to have their children live in the boarding house should be responsible for paying the related costs. The organization has urged the government to reevaluate its Free SHS policy.
According to a report by EduWatch titled “Financial Burden Analysis of the Free SHS Policy and Implications on Equitable Access,” free boarding secondary education ought to be restricted to students from underprivileged neighborhoods.
As part of the DANIDA Strategic Partnership II Project, Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch) commissioned the study, which included support from Oxfam. It outlined how allowing parents to make payments will enable the government to make some revenue to supplement the Free SHS.
“In the medium-to-long-term, the MoE must develop and implement a strategy 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 opportunity for their wards to be day students for free, still decide to opt for boarding status must pay for its full cost.”
The government should enhance the way funds under the Free SHS are distributed to enhance teaching and learning, according to the study’s recommendations.
“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 critical 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 reduce the financial burden on some parents to supply provisions to their wards in school.”
