Free SHS policy hasn’t been ‘fair’ to all students – TEWU Chairman

Acknowledging the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) policy as a good initiative, the National Chairman of the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU), Ambrose Kwadwoza says not most students have benefited from the free aspect of the program.

Speaking on JoyNews’ National Dialogue on the Free SHS Promise he said the majority of students would prefer to attend a boarding school, but the flagship Free SHS policy’s implementation has not ensured equal access for all.

 This Mr Kwadwoza said is because some day students or those who commute from home to school endure long hours in traffic and incur significant transportation costs due to the distance between their homes and schools.

“They spend hours in traffic so if you put all those things into perspective, you will see that the Free SHS policy has not been fair to all Ghanaians,” the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) member told JoyNews.

The National Chairman of TEWU stated that many students, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, face challenges commuting to schools located far from their homes.

Ambrose Kwadwoza emphasised that such Senior High School (SHS) students bear the brunt of this inequality, stressing that the situation highlights the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) policy’s lack of fairness.

“So, if somebody will be kept in the boarding house and fed three times and somebody who commutes daily to school and back is fed once, then already the cost barrier that you want to eliminate has been embedded on the person who is commuting from the house and back,” he said.

Addressing the argument that students were already commuting long distances before the Free SHS program, Mr Kwadwoza explained that, previously, commuting was a choice made due to financial constraints.

However, he said with the introduction of the Free SHS policy of which boarding schools have also been free, “let everybody benefit from what is free for all Ghanaians.”