A group calling itself Young Citizens for Accountable Governance (YOCAG) has described as “discriminatory” government’s decision to exclude private schools from its Free Senior High School policy.
The group also said government’s resolve to fund the Free SHS policy with the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) was wrong because the ABFA is meant for public investment expenditure in physical development of the country.
The group in a statement said: “The Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) is petroleum revenue. Article 257 of the 1992 constitution of Ghana and section (3) of the Petroleum ACT 2016 (ACT 919) clearly explains that Ghanaians are the owners of petroleum resources found in Ghana. Petroleum revenue must, therefore, benefit all the owners (Ghanaians) and not some section of Ghanaians.
“Applying the ABFA to only children in public schools is a dangerous discrimination that must be corrected immediately or the ABFA should not be used at all. How can all of us own a resource and you decide to apply the resource in the interest of only one owner? We will not agree. The law is very clear without any ambiguity that petroleum resources of the country belong to all Ghanaians and its usage to finance [Free SHS] must benefit every Ghanaian in the senior high schools, both public and private.”
The group said the Free SHS policy should be extended to the private schools if only the ABFA funds would be used to finance it for the purposes of “equity and fairness”.
YOCAG has threatened to seek redress in court “if government does not include children in private schools and parliament approves the use of ABFA” for the Free SHS policy.
Source: Classfmonline
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Oh! I see. The name depicts their knowledge. No one is forced to enroll their children in private schools. It's ones choice, I therefore employ this group to march thier broken jaw English with maturity. Even the school feeding program has not yet gain roots. I also entreating the group of young to read extra miles to equip themselves before airing their views. What some people are doing nowadays is a prove of sabotage.
So if the ABFA is meant to be used for Public Investment Infrastructure, and the free SHS is a public program, why can't government use it for a public program like free SHS. Why do the private schools want some of the money when they are collecting money from the parents as fees to cover their cost. In countries like the USA and Europe private schools don't always get government funding and yet many students go to private schools over there. The private schools just need to up their game and the facilities they have and some parents will still want to send their children to private school for one reason or the other. Free SHS is a public program.
EVEN IN THE DEVELOPED COUNTRIES PRIVATE SCHOOLS PAY FEES. WHAT THE GOVERNMENT MUST DO IT TO LET THE PRIVATE SCHOOLS TO GIVE SOME FINANCIAL AIDS AND SOME SCHORLARSHIPS TO HELP STUDENTS OF PARENTS WHO CHOOSE PRIVATE SCHOOLS. IT CAN NEVER BE FREE EVEN FROM K. G TO UNIVERSITY. GET YOUR FACTS WELL AND STOP HARRASSING THE GOVERNMENT
i agree with u cos i pay 5gh a day for my childs feeding fee and 550 for fees awhiles those at government schools are eating lunch for free and dont pay fees so if i want to benefit then i have to enroll my child in the public school as well. This youth are just confused and dont know what they are talking about
Why must private schools be included? Have u seen any private school which is benefiting from the school feeding program so young whatever if u want to benefit then simply go to a government school cos if we are to make all benefit then most people will choose to go to ideal, elite, action secondary than going to odasco, mamfe, adonteng and others