Dr. Jacob Oppong Nkansah
The Centre for Policy Scrutiny (CPS) has called for reallocation of resources under the Free Senior High School (SHS) programme to prioritise Category C and D schools, in order to close the gap that currently favours already well-resourced schools.
Presenting the report titled “Improved Access, Quality Questioned: A Report on 9 Years of Ghana’s Free Senior High School (SHS) Policy” in Accra, Dr. Jacob Oppong Nkansah said the central and most policy-relevant finding of the study was that Free SHS was not a uniform experience across schools.
Dr. Nkansah indicated that schools were selected based on the Ghana Education Service (GES) categorisation system of A, B, C, and D, which classifies institutions according to prestige, resources, and performance. This approach enabled comparisons between well-resourced schools and institutions facing significant resource constraints.
He explained that the country’s A to D school categorisation system had, in practice, entrenched rather than eliminated existing inequalities within the secondary education system.
He said, “Rebalance resource distribution to prioritise disadvantaged (Category C/D) schools, closing the gap that currently favours already well-resourced schools. Clarify and formally legislate the definition of “Free” in Free SHS, explicitly specifying that it covers tuition, textbooks, uniforms, boarding, and other routinely hidden costs.”
According to CPS, the study, which involved 47 participants, was deliberately structured to provide depth and diversity by engaging multiple stakeholder groups across Ghana Education Service’s school categorisation system and regional zones.
It also recommended that Free SHS should be entrenched through bipartisan legislation requiring a parliamentary supermajority for any future amendment, with oversight provided by an independent cross-party statutory board.
Dr. Nkansah said the study was conducted across Ghana’s geographical zones, including the North, East, Central West, Central East, and South, to capture regional variations in the implementation of the policy.
The report noted that the inclusion of students, teachers, head teachers, kitchen staff, and fresh graduates provided a holistic assessment of Free SHS implementation, capturing issues relating to access, quality, discipline, and operational sustainability.
It noted that the multi-stakeholder approach distinguished the study from previous research, which often focused mainly on teachers and policymakers, by providing broader perspectives on both student outcomes and operational challenges.
The report observed that Free SHS, launched in 2017, represented a major transformation in the country’s education system by removing financial barriers to secondary education, but explained that unlike the Progressive Free SHS policy introduced in 2015, which absorbed only partial costs for day students, the current Free SHS framework provides comprehensive support covering tuition, boarding, meals, admission, and registration fees for students across the country.
According to the report, Category A schools, which were already well resourced before the introduction of Free SHS, have largely used the additional support to strengthen academic standards, leadership, and governance, adding that the policy has not produced equal experiences for all students, as resource disparities among schools continue to affect implementation outcomes.
The report stated that the unequal distribution of resources was widening rather than reducing the disparities that Free SHS was designed to address, noting that overcrowding in classrooms, dormitories, and dining halls, coupled with infrastructure deficits, was affecting teaching effectiveness, student welfare, and health conditions.
Dr. Nkansah, who is also a lecturer at the University of Education, Winneba, further proposed the expansion of the national education data dashboard into a fully real-time and publicly accessible system to track enrolment, attendance, learning outcomes, teacher-pupil ratios, resource allocation, and West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results by school, district, and region.
By Ebenezer K. Amponsah