The campaign promise of the sitting government, while in opposition heading into the just ended general elections 2016, just kicks off on Tuesday September 12 of the 2017/18 academic year.
It is in fulfillment to one of the much expected political promises, which, many believe, will be impossible to implement. Tirelessly enough, however, it is eventually here but is it not too early for this government to implement? Is Ghana really capable to groom and nurture this program into a full blown permanent educational policy to benefit future generations?
These questions disappear from all media submissions on the introduction of this Free SHS program amidst the computer placement brouhaha it generates when Ghana Education Service (GES) postponed deadlines for placement of students for the fourth time; and the fact that some students who were repeated by teachers in various classes due to poor academia had been promoted just to make room for this 'all-inclusive' policy to gain grounds.
Ghana being a "big baby" in the practice of a democratic system of governance, policies and management of national properties keep changing as per change of government. On a political platform, one political ideology says the implementation of this program is impossible given quite a number of factors, which the Free-SHS-starving Ghanaian public pay no mind to. It was, at the time, taken as a political propaganda to sway votes and to gain public sympathy.
This write-up is not here to take sides but to inquire from the listening public whether or not the grounds are fertile enough for government to propagate and harvest bountiful future for this new political baby.
We are well aware many are the challenges schools in Ghana struggle to survive from, right from elementary through to the very top of educational ladder. For the Senior High Schools, not many boast of adequate educational facilities and the previous government of the Mahama administration of the fourth republic was not able to finish its promise of providing a set number of infrastructural facilities for the senior high schools across the country. Had that been completed, there will be no discussions as to whether there are enough facilities to help this government see its Free SHS policy through.
What is worrying, and which everyone seems to be asking nothing about, surprisingly, is the fact that even heads of the senior high institutions, that lack reasonable number of educational aids, are mute and GES pretends not to know about their plight. I worry because when government starts distributing funds to facilitate its Free SHS policy for the selected first year students, minus the continuing student of course, it is going to ensure fair and equal disbursement without taking into accounts whether or not an institution lacks human or material resources, allegedly.
The assumption may be that perhaps all institutions are well equipped to carry out the grand agenda and so therefore allocation of funds to all schools are and will be done with that in mind.
But I love to be the person to ask this government what the outcomes of its feasibility studies were, as regards availability of educational resources, infrastructural and human alike, for all schools especially those in the rural parts of the country before decision was taken to roll out this educational policy?
Also, the question of why the pick-and-choose in the selection of students for the supposedly "free for all" Free SHS policy and why no single continuing student is a beneficiary of it, is gliding by unanswered. Parents who are the most affected by this incongruence seem to have no voice to question the right authorities as Parents Teacher Associations (PTAs) throughout the country are progressively silent all of a sudden.
Perhaps there are, allegedly, some negotiations behind the scenes to indemnify those not benefiting from the program although they are directly affected by the introduction of the Free SHS policy. Just maybe.
The only way to ensure fairness to every Ghanaian child, who has the right to a share of the national cake, which is the main sponsor of this policy, at the end of the day, is to implement this policy when the grounds are well prepared and set for every Ghanaian child to benefit without discrimination.
To the ordinary Ghanaian mind, without even any political dispute, choosing who is, and who is not, to benefit from a free policy which tax payers money is going to pay for by the end of the day, is nothing short of abject discrimination. This because students of equal right and chance at benefiting from a government policy now sitting in the same class under one teacher but with this "imaginary" division of those who are not good enough for even a Free SHS policy.
Being a ward of a voter politically affiliated to the government of the day, what will be the mental position of a parent whose ward is declared "unqualified" for this Free SHS policy? Happy? Most definitely not; at least not until such a parent admits otherwise, I will not bite my tongue.
More so, all over the media, Ghana and beyond, you see flashes of "Free SHS" there and about, without any one journalist or blogger breaking the monotony by reporting on the plight and complains of those other Ghanaians "left out" in the share of the national cake just because their wards are not "good enough".
If government decides to go choosy in implementing this educational policy excluding wards of some other Ghanaians, the word "free" needs to be carefully looked at one more time in the Oxford Longman version of the Dictionary. Also, if all Ghanaian students cannot benefit from this policy why the need to implement it now, knowing too well all is not set for its inception?
We all know that in every democratic dispensation, government needs to listen and respond to the cries of the people but must do so without any partiality, especially when government response will not benefit all.
Government in a rush to, allegedly, win a political sympathy, of some sort, from Ghanaians and the on-looking worlds, so as to prove a point to other political rivals, maybe, is what pivoted this hasty implementation of the Free SHS, so-called.
It is true the policy will relief parents, whose wards are beneficiaries, of some but not all financial impediments, but who is to comfort those parents whose wards need to go to school but are declared 'not qualified' for this "free" policy? Does this instance satisfy the "Access, Equity and Quality" which is the theme chosen for the Free SHS policy?
Last but not the least, is every provision for the policy well represented in practice exactly as on paper? Who is to look into all these, unbiased, and advise government on the right course of action to take, for the benefit of all Ghanaians? Who has the balls to dare this ' I'm-in-rush' government?
Thə CŁƏrk.
(A Pressure Group)
(Klikor & Diaspora).
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