Free SHS ‘Selfless, Righteous Policy’ – JOY

Independent presidential candidate for the 2016 election, Joseph Osei Yeboah (JOY), has described government’s flagship programme, Free Senior High School (SHS), as a “selfless and righteous policy” that should be supported by every Ghanaian.

“It’s a selfless and righteous policy and it’s something that anyone who has a good heart for Ghana will go in for. In my book it’s among four of the righteous systems that has been established in Africa that is helping with good governance and when you take a country like Mauritius, their literacy rate is around 98 per cent and the only resource they have is sugarcane. But because of the high level of literacy, they are able to govern themselves and govern the little resources that they have and so you cannot go wrong when it comes to this policy,” he told Class News’ Kwesi Parker-Wilson at the launch of the Free SHS at the West African Secondary School (WASS) in Accra on Tuesday, 12 September 2017.

“With Free SHS Ghana has won. There will be challenges but we need to come together and surmount those challenges so that it becomes workable,” he added.

The Free SHS policy has kicked off across the country. It began on Monday, 11 September 2017 when first year students who were successfully placed in various SHSs were to report.

The policy has suffered some challenges as thousands of qualified students are still yet to be placed. The main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has also questioned the sustainability of the policy but President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said despite the challenges, the policy will not fail.

“As is with all human endeavours, we will certainly face challenges in the implementation of this policy of Free SHS despite our best preparation and efforts. We may falter but by the grace of the almighty God, we shall not fall for we will be ready in all humility to accept inputs and criticisms aimed at improving the policy,” he stated at the launch of the policy.