Free SHS Education-Is it Possible?
During the IEA encounter with the electorate, the flag bearer
of New Patriotic, Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo-Addo mentioned the free senior high school (SHS)
education policy as one of his intended policies he will implement when given
the nod to rule this country come January 2013. This has not been the only platform on which
the Hon. Nana Akuffo-Addo has stated this; he has done this on every
electioneering platform since 2008.
Nana’s policy is a noble idea but not a novelty and I believe
he has good intentions for the people of this country. But very characteristic
of Ghanaians the debate has been politicized along NPP-NDC lines. You are
susceptible to be labeled NDC or NPP depending on whether you disagree or agree
with the possibility of free SHS education. Worse of all those so called party
faithful, serial callers and some social commentators have taken entrenched
positions on the issue depending on which side they belong.
Is this party labeling fair? Even if one belongs to a
political party, does that person not have the right to speak his mind
objectively without being reminded the party he belongs to? Our partisan
attitude has created a gag order making it impossible for experts and
professionals to speak their minds on some of these pertinent issues that
confront our country. Our political landscape is fraught with politicians who
have no political conviction of how they can solve our problems.
So is free SHS education possible in Ghana? In my opinion it
is possible in the long term if certain pressing issues that confront our
educational system are taken care of first.
A major problem facing our educational system today is the focus
on quantity neglecting quality. It is obvious that the NPP’s policy on
education is inherently going to perpetuate this quantitative aspect of
educational policy. It is good that we all go to school but pushing everyone to
go to school for the sake of getting ‘education’ is not enough. Education if
properly given should equip the educated with employable skills or ability to
create employment.
School drop out is not just the result of inability to pay
fees. There are a lot of other factors that cause children to drop out of
school. Children may drop out of school because the school system is not
challenging enough. Brilliant children who exhibit unusual behaviors have been
branded as ‘witches and wizards’ and are forced to drop out of school. Our
social attitudes and perception of the educated have forced so many children
out of school. In communities where the most respected or rich person is not an
educated person children consider going to school a waste of time because they
believe one can succeed without education. Certain cultural and religious
practices are also contributing factors to why some children drop out of
school. Therefore basing the introduction of free SHS education on a single
story of inability to pay fees is not enough.
Today while basic education is free and compulsory we know
that not all children are in school. We can pat ourselves on the shoulder,
however, since Ghana’s basic school enrolment is rated among the best in
Africa. Our primary school enrolment is about ninety-five percent.
Unfortunately our students have performed abysmally in international exams in
basic math and science skills. Ghana’s educational system is ranked 148th
out of 181 in the world below countries like Equatorial Guinea and Namibia.
We also know that, though basic education is free some
parents have their wards enrolled in private schools that charge exorbitant
fees. Such parents are prepared to pay any amount of money to have the wards
educated. The reality is that majority
of the public schools are producing a lot of illiterate graduates who can not
read or write. The BECE results attest to this phenomenon. Majority of these schools are found in the
rural areas. The situation is that the gap between the rich and the poor, urban
and rural is widening as a result of the kind of education they are
receiving.
Our quality of education is very poor as a result of many
factors. One of these is teacher quality at the basic school level especially
lower primary. The NPP cannot absolve itself of contributing to the problem
when they created an ad-hoc solution of employing unqualified teachers to teach
in their youth employment program. When
we continue finding makeshift solutions to problems we end up creating more
problems. And one such solution is employing people who cannot even write their
own names to teach in the lower primary because these are children who do not
know anything. We forget that these years are formative years of the child,
when the foundation is weak they grow up not knowing basic knowledge required
to succeed at a higher level.
Another factor is not necessary infrastructure, even though
this is eminent in the rural areas, but other conducive facilities that
facilitate teaching and learning. Every child needs books to augment what is
taught in school. In this age of information and technology children need
access to computers. The reforms that introduced the JHS and SHS concept
revised the curriculum and introduced the study of ICT at the JHS level.
Computer studies which was also part of the Integrated Science syllabus at the
SHS as level was decoupled and introduced as a subject on its own. Majority of
schools mostly at the JHS level and the SHS in rural areas cannot boast of
computer laboratories to facilitate the study of the subject.
Despite the employment of unqualified teachers to fill
classrooms that are empty we have teacher deficit in this country. This teacher
deficit does not occur in urban areas but in the rural areas of this country.
In fact schools in urban areas are choked with teachers who do less work
compared to their counterparts in the rural areas. Most teachers are not ready
to accept posting to the remote parts of this country because it is a
disincentive to work in this part of the country. Apart form the abundance of
foodstuffs there is no opportunity for those teachers in the rural areas to
upgrade their knowledge and improve their personal lives.
The School Feeding program and the Capitation Grant were very
important interventions introduced by the NPP government to encourage children
to go to school. These programs are being continued and expanded by the NDC
government. We also know that the SHS boarding fees and some other fees are
being subsidized by the government for the running of secondary schools in the
country. But these programs are fraught with serious problems forcing some of
the schools to borrow money to run their schools. And when they schools cannot
pay they are forced to closed until government pays them.
I believe that the introduction of free SHS education will
only reinforced the widening gap between urban rich schools and rural poor
schools. Majority of the people who attend these schools in the city are the
ones who go to prestigious private schools in the city. Schools that charged
exorbitant fees but affordable by the elite in our society. It is a fact that
the computer selection and placement program that selects students to SHS have never
picked a student who hails from a school in a rural area who had aggregate 20
and place the child in Achimota school.
The free SHS education will also create an avenue for the
proliferation of private senior high schools which may be producing more
quality students than the public ones. The signs are already there. We know
what is happening at the basic school level. Virtually every basic private
school outperforms the public schools at the BECE exams. Parents are ready to
send their wards to these schools. It is no doubt that such a situation will
arise with introduction of the free SHS education. We should be wary so that we
do not create a society where the minority elite and their children get access
to the best things of this country while the majority poor get access to the
worse. Every Ghanaian child deserves the best and that does not necessary mean
free SHS education.
Today JHS graduates, SHS graduates, technical and vocational
graduates, polytechnic graduates and university graduates are being turned out
everyday. What skills have they acquired to meet the job opportunities of
today’s world? The NPP promises job creation based on manufacturing. Will our
mass production of graduates through the free SHS be equipped with the right
skills to be employed in the manufacturing industries? Will our universities be
able to admit all qualified applicants who want to pursue high education?
Free SHS education is possible but in the long term. A better
educated Ghanaian will mean a well informed Ghanaian who will make well
informed choices in the interest of this nation. A better educated Ghanaian
will demand good service and accountability from politicians. A better educated
Ghanaian will contribute immensely to the development of this country. That is
what is needed right now, to improve upon the quality of education and work
progressively towards free SHS education.
