Private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu has described the free senior high school (Free SHS) policy of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as a good initiative that must be protected.
He, however, noted that the initiative must be improved upon.
The Free SHS was launched by President Akufo-Addo in 2017 upon the assumption of office as president of Ghana. He made the promise while in opposition.
Contributing to a discussion on TV3’s Key Points on Saturday, March 2 in relation to the State of the Nation Address (SONA) delivered by President Akufo-Addo on Tuesday February 27, he said: “free SHS, we are happy about it because it is a bold initiative, we will continue to harvest a lot of dividends from the free SHS.”
He added, “we should protect it.”
Kpebu further indicated that he is against persons who call for the cancellation of the policy.
“When I hear people saying let us cancel it, it means they are not well informed, anybody who says they should cancel free SHS does not know basic economics.”
President Akufo-Addo during the SONA indicated that not only has the implementation of the policy been successful, but it remains a transformative programme that has unearthed talents who may have ended their formal education at the BECE level.
He said “Mr Speaker, Free SHS might be labelled by its detractors as a mere political slogan that must be demonised, but it is, in fact, a transformative programme that has broken myths and liberated minds. I am proud that the NPP government, under my leadership, has been able to bring this transformative policy into our education system.”
“Mr Speaker, I believe the success of the Free SHS has answered its critics and the arguments about it should cease, and we should simply concentrate on finding ways to improve it,” he stated.
The President said that aside from implementing the policy, he is thankful that people’s fears that Free SHS would lower standards in schools have been allayed following the release of the 2023 WASSCE results.
“I know we will get more engineers, doctors, architects, scientists, writers and poets out of the increased numbers of those attending Senior High School, who will go on to further their education,” he indicated.
