President of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Angel Carbonu has stated that the government ignored several warnings made against the implementation of the Free Senior High School policy.
Mr. Carbonu intimated that the anticipatory challenges were so glaring but the government ignored the numerous calls made against the implementation of the policy which he said needs a drastic review.
Lamenting about the challenges confronting the policy at a public forum dubbed ‘Achimota Speaks’ on the topic ‘The Governance, Management and Financing of Secondary Education in Ghana,’ Mr. Carbonu said either the government takes urgent steps to review the policy or risk worsening the already deplorable secondary education system in Ghana.
“When Free SHS was announced by the government, we congratulated the government, but we also warned the government that we have been down this road before where there were agitations when the universities wanted to introduce fee-paying because funds from the government were not coming and the facilities in the universities were running down.
“We knew that the government was going to renege on its responsibility on Free SHS because the resources of government are always in competition with other needs and wants.”
Mr. Carbonu further bemoaned the impact the poor implementation of the policy has had on basic education which he said has erased public confidence.
“The saddest aspect is the basic schools. All our public basic schools are running and some schools in ramshackle are getting students more than the public schools because the confidence in the public schools is gone.”
