Free SHS: Gov’t saves parents of 400,000 students GH¢2,015.22 per child per year- REPORT

The government of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has saved the parents of over 400,000 students enrolled under the Free SHS program GH¢2,015.22 per child per year, MyNewsGh.com has filed from the 2019 budget statement.

For a parent with a boarding SHS student, the parent is saving an amount of GH¢2,015.22.

Also, for a parent with a boarding TVET student the parent is saving GH¢ 2,115.22, Minister of Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta revealed.

Over the 3-year period, a parent with a boarding SHS student would have saved nearly GH¢ 6,045. (or about 60 million old Cedis).

“The savings is about 120 million old Cedis if you have 2 children going through the free SHS” the minister added.

On the school Feeding Program he said;

“We increased the school feeding programme from 1.6 million children to 2.1 million children, and also increased the amount spent on each child by 25 percent. … in the area of LEAP, we have added more than 150,000 households to the programme thereby improving their livelihoods”

“We increased the school feeding programme from 1.6 million children to 2.1 million children, and also increased the amount spent on each child by 25 percent. … in the area of LEAP, we have added more than 150,000 households to the programme thereby improving their livelihoods” he added.

The Free SHS (Free Senior High School) policy is a Government of Ghana initiative introduced by the President Nana Akufo-Addo administration in September 2017. The policy had been a major campaign policy prior to the election of President Akuffo-Addo in 2016.

The policy makes secondary education in Ghana absolutely free.

In 2018, His Excellency Nana Akuffo Addo and his team of governance introduced another initiative as part of the Free SHS Education Policy which is the Double Track System. The Double Track System was introduced by the government in other to enable various Senior High Schools in Ghana to take in more students and ensure that all Ghanaian students have access to a senior high school education.

The Double Track System is in two sessions, thus The Green Track and The Gold Track. The Green Track represents the first batch of students who would go to school for a term and are later followed by the Gold Track students who would continue after students of the green track session have vacated on the academic calendar.

Source: MyNewsGh.com