MoE announces date, time & venue for ‘The Free SHS Story’ event
After almost eight years of implementing the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) policy, the Ministry of Education (MoE) has slated April 23, 2024, to share the success and challenges of introducing the government flagship programme.
Scheduled to take place at the Kofi Ohene-Konadu Auditorium, University of Professional Studies Accra (UPSA), from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm, the Minister for Education Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum is the special guest of the event dubbed ‘The Free SHS Story’.
About Free SHS Policy
The Free Senior High School (Free SHS) education policy in Ghana is a government initiative introduced in the 2017 September Presidential administration of Nana Akufo-Addo. The policy’s origination began as part of the President’s presidential campaign during Ghana’s 2016 election period and has become an essential part of Ghana’s educational system.
The policy’s core themes of access, equity and equality fulfil the United Nations’ modified Sustainable Development Goals, where member countries amalgamate those themes in their educational systems to certify adequate learning experiences for students.
In the 2018 academic year, His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa 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 to enable various senior high schools to take in more students and ensure that all 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 semester 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.
The double track system is an exemplar of the extensions of the policy since its development. The system was introduced to combat the overwhelming number of high school enrollments that were as a result of the publicizing of the policy.
The main criticism of the system was how educators and school facility owners were not entirely consulted on the government’s plans, which included the time frames their schools would be renovated and their accessibility to freelance funding.
Therefore, some improvements that were made could not entirely benefit the regions the system was specifically formed for, as while some still lacked in suitable equipment others had an abundance of it.
Its implementation nevertheless has seen the quality of educational resources such as improving the state of physical classrooms, reducing classroom congestion, and shortening schooling hours, contribute to the academic and social progression of students.
The temporary system was introduced in aim to create an advanced school functioning dynamic in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) target 4.