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The government should allow stakeholders in the educational space to support the financing of Free Senior High School (SHS) education instead of insisting on exclusively funding it, panelists at the Mfantsipim Old Boys Association (MOBA) Annual Engagement Series have advocated.

They said the government should leverage the goodwill of old students of SHSs, religious organisations and companies to support the Free SHS policy and education in general to ensure a sustainable means of funding education.

One of the panelists and a Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana School of Law, Dr Kweku Ainuson, however, said such support should be institutionalised with incentives for those willing to help.

“I think the government should put its money where its mouth is. There should be tax incentives for us to contribute to education. There are companies willing to help fund education, but there are no incentives,” he said.

Dr Ainuson said other countries had diversified funding for education, with many educational institutions having endowment funds that had more money through the support from the government.

Such endowment funds, he explained, were mostly supported by old students of such institutions, who were willing to donate because of the existing frameworks for their establishments.

“Fortunately for Ghana, affinity to schools is more at the SHS level, with old students willing to go all out to support their schools. Unfortunately, organising alumni is done at the school level. There are no rules and no encouragement or support from the government,” he added.