Presec, Mfantsipim, Adisadel, Wesley Girls, Prempeh et al to be cancelled from Free SHS program?

Ghana has about 872 Second Cycle Institutions of which 66% (575 schools)are government controlled or state owned.

The interesting thing is that majority of these state owned schools which constitute the 66% are also missionary schools.
Missionary schools like the Presbyterian Boys School, Mfantsipim School, Wesley Girls High School, T.I Ahmadiyya, Adisadel, St. Augustine’s, Prempeh College were taken over in 1984 by the government.

President Nana Addo, who promised an absolutely free Senior High School education in the immediate past national elections kept his word by implementing the policy against all odds, a generous gesture for which majority of Ghanaians should benefit immensely once the logistics are properly managed.
However, I have concerns that this free education policy might not be quite robust as it appears that Nana Addo must have taken Ghanaians for ‘fools’ because he recently took the ‘U TURN’ to promise the release of the FULL control of the missionary schools (which constitute the majority of the state owned institutions) back to their original owners.

Does this ‘SMART’ move mean the free Senior High Schools (SHS) education policy might no longer cover students of those institutions as they now qualify to be called PRIVATE institutions?

This development, as a matter of fact will cushion or absorb the serious financial burden that the government might be carrying on its shoulders.

The Ministry of Education must come clear on what precisely it means by FULL control of the missionary schools by explaining the amount of power yielded to the these missionary schools because now , this paints a picture of a 419 and would be the biggest fraudulent scandal perpetrated by the government in broad daylight as it appears they are running away from their responsibilities.

Already the free SHS education policy has faced some challenges. It only covers fresh form 1 students and this has no bearing with the “free SHS education for all” campaign which the NPP government preached.

The policy doesn’t even cover form one students who had the need to repeat the year on accounts of poor academic performance. People are still studying under harsh conditions, some students are struggling with a place to sit and these challenges affect a great deal the quality of our education.

From the foregoing it will be very prudent for government, for the avoidance of doubt in the minds of well meaning Ghanaians to set out the modalities in the takeover of missionary schools vis-a-vis its next line of action as far as the implementation of the free SHS policy is concerned.

Source: GhanaCrusader.Com