The free SHS system as announced by the President
Education involves the acquisition of skills needed to identify, scrutinise, unravel, fight against and successfully address the challenges of life such as hunger, poverty, deprivation, squalor and ignorance.
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It is as a result of education that we are able to understand the world in which we live and overcome its challenges. Thus, the importance of education lies in the acquisition of skills needed to overcome the hurdles in one’s community or country.
Important as it is, it is not everyone who easily gets the education needed to enhance the skills needed for development. It is easy to understand the issue when we compare a group of educated teenagers with another group of the same age that is uneducated. Whereas the former is seen to clearly understand issues better and contribute to national development, the uneducated group ends up doing menial jobs when in fact their intellect and skills could have been used to contribute more to national development.
Country examples
There is, therefore, the need for countries to do more to ensure that their citizens become educated and more fruitful towards national development. In Sri Lanka, free education is provided by the government at various levels. Similarly, in Mauritius, the government provides free education to its citizens from the pre-primary to secondary levels. It is, therefore, not out of place for the government of Ghana to promote free education.
Fortunately, beginning from September 2017/2018 academic year, the government will make public senior high school education free. Announcing this at the 60th Anniversary Speech and Prize-giving Day of the Okuapemman Senior High School recently, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo stated that the free education system would not be limited to only SHSs but extended to others such as agricultural, vocational and technical institutions. The free education system will cover fees for science laboratory, admission, library and other similar fees charged by the schools.
Benefits
What is good about this policy is that it will help parents and guardians to save money for other family needs. It will also help brilliant, needy students to be educated to play meaningful roles in national development. While this is good and encouraging news, as unexpected, it has already generated debate in political circles as to whether the Akufo-Addo Administration will be able to carry it out. Some have argued that the cost involved will be too much and, therefore, wonder how the government will finance it. However, having thought through the policy and announced it, it is clear that the government has identified reliable sources of funding to make the system workable.
Effects
The result of free education will increase the demand for SHS education from all quarters. This means that more schools will be needed to cope with the situation. What this implies is that the government will have to put up more school buildings in all parts of the country to satisfy the likely increase in demand.
Another important issue necessary for consideration is making life better for teachers in SHS to encourage them to meet the challenges in the education sector. Fortunately, the government has already thought of restoring teacher trainee allowance and also providing other incentives for teachers who are already working in the field. The teacher is at the centre of any results-oriented programme in the education sector. For this reason, every effort must be made to encourage them to put in their best to achieve positive results in that sector.
Towards this end, the government needs to engage in effective collaboration with all teacher training associations to facilitate the building of an affordable housing scheme, as well as instituting vehicle loans for teachers. Such a move will go a long way to encourage our teachers to achieve greater results for the education sector.
The need for sound and reliable education in the country cannot be overemphasised due to its importance in socio-economic development. The advocacy of free education may appear irrational at first sight, especially in the age of neo-liberal consensus where market forces are revered. Indeed, free education may not be a solution for equality of opportunities but it provides answers to the training, development, grooming and effective utilisation of the human resource base of the country.
To be able to transform the country, we need to encourage education so that the knowledge acquired from science and technology, agriculture, mathematics, history, law and philosophy can be applied appropriately for socio-economic development. Rather than designing the education system to increasingly look like a market, it should be shaped to become more accessible, democratic and fulfilling for everyone, including people from households with low incomes or poor backgrounds.
A free, meaningful education is within the reach of the country so we need to palatably scheme it out for results-oriented, smooth-sailing implementation.
The writer is Head of Public Relations, Ghana Standards Authority.