A Review Of The Free Senior High School Policy Is A Welcome Idea: Where Can We Focus? | Features

Background

The Free Senior High School policy (Free SHS) introduced by President Akufo-Addo and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government in September 2017 is so far delivering results by improving access to education, as contained in some statistical reports. In 2016, the country's gross enrollment ratio (GER) at the upper secondary level, according to the UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS), stood at 51%.

This figure moved to 67% in 2020. The net enrollment ratio (NER) stood at 62% in 2016 and moved to 75% in 2020. The gender parity index (GPI) has moved from 0.92297 in 2016 to 0.96962 in 2020. Quite obviously , these trends mean the transitioning rate from Junior High School to Senior High School has increased, overcoming a critical barrier to access, that is, poverty. The country's human capital development and socio-economic transformation cannot be achieved without massive improvement and participation in education, at least at the high school level.