Free SHS has changed Ghana’s future – Finance Minister

Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta says government’s flagship programme, free Senior High School (SHS) has changed the future of the country.

Presenting the 2019 Mid-year Budget Review in Parliament, the Finance Minister said the flagship programme, which is currently in the second year, has a total of 432,791 first year students enrolled for the 2018/19 academic year representing a 19.5 percent increase over the previous year’s figure of 362,108.

This, he noted, brings the total number of beneficiaries to 794,899 since the inception of the free SHS programme.

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“In September 2019, the third cohort of SHS students will be enrolled making senior high education free for all for the first time in our history,” he said.

Mr Ofori-Atta noted that the successful implementation of the free SHS programme has resulted in an increase in demand for secondary education.

To meet this demand and ensure that no child is left behind, the Finance Minister stated government introduced the Double-Track school calendar as a temporary measure in 394 SHSs and employed additional 8,872 teachers in order to ensure effective teaching and learning in the schools.

“Admission to SHSs have never been this higher in recent times,” he said.

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