Chairman of the Governing Council of Dominion University College Professor Felix Nikoi Hammond has urged President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to urgently reconsider the funding module of his government’s flagship programme, Free Senior High School Programme.
While acknowledging that the implementation of the programme is a major step towards tackling socio-economic inequality, Prof. Hammond wished that “this step would be followed immediately with initiatives to radically enhance the quality of secondary education in Ghana”.
He observed that giving every child an equal chance of going to secondary school is no mean achievement.
The Free SHS Programme was implemented in September in the 2017/2018 academic year. It started with first-year students in all public SHSs and technical and vocational education training (TVET) institutions across the country. The policy absorbs all approved fees in these schools.
But the programme has been fraught with challenges, some of which led to the introduction of the double track system. According to Prof. Hammond, the current approach to disbursing free SHS funds to only public schools limits students’ choices, which he said can have a negative effect on their performance.
Disbursing the monies directly to public schools, he said, forces free SHS beneficiaries to choose public schools, if they would have preferred a private alternative.
He argues that a student’s entitlement to government support for their SHS education should be based on the grounds that they are citizens of Ghana and not because they are prepared to attend a public school. He proposed a disbursement model that he called Per Student Budgetary Allocation (PSBA), which he explained to be each beneficiary student entitled to a budgetary allocation for their SHS education.
The student, he further explained, is then allowed to choose where to have their education; be it in a private school or public school.
The entitlement of each student, he said, should be transferred to any school they so wish and if it turns out that the fees at a chosen private school is more than the student’s PSBA, it will then be the responsibility of the student to cover the difference.
“Rather than compelling students to go to a school because the Free SHS funds will be sent there, as the case is currently, under the proposed PSBA, the money will follow the student to his or her chosen school. This gives students freedom of choice, a hallmark of a free society,” he further explained.
Source: 3news.com
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Ghana , our biggest problem is with so call professors in Ghana. It is difficult to understand the way they think and do things .In Ghana today anybody can decide to join any school or institution both in Ghana and Abroad , so the prof .should rethink his stand now
Please, Prof. can show or where in the world free education is been in practice which extends to private schools. Please, it is a choice even food that we eat has a choice. Stop your intellectual disability
Mr. Professor, I don't agree with you. Everywhere in the world, there are public and private schools. Those who are rich usually go to private schools where the fees are higher. Go to the UK and check. If you go to public school you will enjoy Free SHS. It is as simple as that. By your suggestion, if a student is given money by the government but decides to quit school, can that money be returned to government and how? In the public schools, the authorities can monitor the resources easily and take effective decisions because the checks and balances can be applied there. Not private schools.
you could not have said better Adams
CHALLENGES? EVEN EATING FOOD HAS ITS CHALLENGES! WHAT ARE WE ON THIS EARTH FOR? TO SUBDUE ALL CHALLENGES. THE OTHER CITIZENS OF THE GLOBE APART FROM AFRICA HAVE DEVELOPED BECAUSE THEY HAVE BEEN PRAGMATIC IN SOLVING THEIR PROBLEMS. FREE SHS HAS ITS CHALLENGES AND WE NEED THINKERS TO MOVE US THROUGH.