The Free Senior High School (Free SHS) policy, John Dramani Mahama has said, will be sustained by his government.
The President-elect has said this amid claims of his administration abolishing the policy.
According to him, the assertions made by the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) were mere propaganda which were meant to dissuade the voting population from voting for the NDC.
Mahama has told Voice of America (VOA), in an interview that “Free SHS has come to stay, and it is not going anywhere.”
“Nobody is going to scrap Free SHS. What was said was political talk and gimmickry. We are going to maintain it, What we are going to do is get dedicated funding for it,” he added.
The Free SHS policy was introduced in 2017 under the Akufo-Addo administration to provide free tuition, boarding, and meals for students in public senior high schools, enabling hundreds of thousands of Ghanaian youth, especially from underprivileged backgrounds, to access secondary education.
However, the policy has faced challenges, including overcrowded classrooms, inadequate infrastructure, and delayed release of funds, which have affected its quality and implementation.
However, John Mahama says the programme will be preserved with a stakeholder consultation to review it. He also wants a dedicated funding to be made for it to reduce the financial constraints to improve the quality.
The Free SHS was the NPP’s main campaign message as it did in 2020. But in 2024, many Ghanaians said there was more to being a Ghanaian than having a free SHS, making the party’s campaign fall on deaf ears.
Whilst the government kept drumming that the opposition’s quest to review the policy meant it would be cancelled, the NDC insisted it would rather make the policy better, resonating with many Ghanaians concerned about education access and equity. His victory in the December 7 elections was decisive.
The Electoral Commission declared him the winner with 6,328,397 votes, representing 56.55% of the valid votes cast. He defeated his closest rival, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia of the NPP, who garnered 4,657,304 votes (41.61%).
This victory marks a return to the presidency for Mahama, who previously served as Ghana’s leader from 2012 to 2017. His campaign focused on themes of economic restoration, addressing corruption, and improving social programmes like education and healthcare.
