Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh
During his visit to the University of Memphis in the US last week, the running mate of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) flagbearer, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh aka Napo, showcased to his audience of both Ghanaian and other foreign students the feats of the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy and why it remains a stellar initiative of the government.
But for the policy, the charge of which he led under the authority of President Akufo-Addo, he said “within 10 years, Ghana would have had one million young citizens whose highest educational achievement was at the junior high school level.”
Given that the average age of completing junior high school is 14, these individuals, he continued, “would have been unprepared to enter the job market due to both legal and educational constraints.”
The picture when the NPP took over the reins of government in 2017 was gloomy, he said. “Data from 2013 to 2016 showed that, on average, 100,000 children who passed the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) each year could not enrol in SHS due to financial constraints despite qualifying, thus becoming a termination point of their formal education.”
This, he said, represented about 35% of all students who sat the BECE examination. “Among those who did enrol, 22% dropped out for financial reasons. Interestingly, in Northern Ghana, where students had historically benefitted from fee-free education since the 1960s, only 8-11% of children who passed and were placed failed to take up their place.”
In spite of the skepticism of opposition political actors and even within his political fold, President Akufo-Addo, he observed, was determined to implement the Free SHS policy.
The President, he said, “viewed this policy as a sacred covenant with the Ghanaian people, anchored in conviction, and designed to bear future fruits.”
It is arguable whether there has been a more poignant presentation on the Free SHS than the University of Memphis’ Centre for International Education Services delivery by Napo.
Listening to him were Ghanaian students and their foreign counterparts of the university community.
The University of Memphis has a partnership with the Asantehene Osei Tutu’s Foundation.
During his presentation, Napo dropped a hint about the University of Memphis’ plans to expand the granting of scholarships to Ghanaian students, to which he showed visible excitement.
By free SHS, he explained “in addition to tuition which is already free, there will be no admission fees, no library fees, no science centre fees, no computer lab fees, no examination fees, no utility fees; there will be free textbooks, free boarding, and free meals, and day students will get a meal at school for free.”
Within a year of implementing this policy, he narrated “the 35% rate of students failing to take up their place had halved to about 17%.”
Presenting a scoresheet of the policy, he said “in the first Free SHS cohort, 411 out of 465 students who earned 8 A1s across all subjects in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) were from Ghana, topping the charts in West Africa—the highest performance ever in WASSCE history. The top three candidates were also from Ghana.”
By A.R. Gomda