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Deputy Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has dismissed suggestions that government is in a fix as far as the funding and implementation of the free SHS policy is concerned.

Mr. Oppong Nkrumah said though the first year of the free SHS policy was initially fraught with some challenges, government subsequently tackled them.

He insisted that the government was ready to deal with the increased numbers of students expected in the second year of the programme.

“It is incorrect to say government is in a fix regarding the free SHS system. In the first year of the free SHS system, the initial challenge was that we could not find the money to fund it. Budgetary allocation of about 400 million cedis was made available. We funded it and about 90,000 students who did not have an opportunity to go to school did. In this second year, we are envisaging a larger number going into Senior High School.”

The government implemented the free Senior High School program in September 2017, in fulfillment of a major campaign promise in the run-up to the 2016 election.

There have however been some challenges with funding and logistics since the programme took off.

In order to address these challenges, some have suggested the setting up of a voluntary fund within the school system, which will allow people to contribute towards the policy voluntarily.