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Free SHS will collapse our business - Private school owners

The private school owners say that the Free SHS policy will certainly lead to challenges in enrolment in private schools.

 

“It is an undeniable fact that the private sector is the engine of growth for development. Therefore any policy that seeks to collapse the activities of the private sector should be reconsidered. That is why we believe that inasmuch as the [Free SHS] policy is very good as it seeks the well-being and interests of students, parents, and Ghanaians as a whole, it is also imperative that as we sit, we look at factors that can help the private ones to be sustained,” Public Relations Officer of CHOPSS, Naphtali Kyei Baffour told Accra-based Citi FM.

He lamented that candidates who obtain low grades at the Junior High School level would no longer patronise the private schools due to the Free SHS.

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The move, he said, will certainly lead to challenges in enrolment in private schools.

“With the introduction of free SHS, we are yet to hear from the government if they are going to the old system where the cutoff point will be pegged at [aggregate] 30 or they will still operate with the existing one like aggregate 40, 42. If it still happens like that, then those who did not qualify for admission into public institutions that we relied on, now because it is free and they will still be qualified, it means that come two years, three years, four years, there will be no private school existing,” he said.

The president, Nana Akufo-Addo over the weekend said the free public SHS education was aimed at building an educated populace for speedy national development and progress.

"By free SHS, we mean that in addition to tuition, which is already free, there will be no admission fees, no library fees, no science centre fees, no computer laboratory 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.

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"Free SHS will also cover agricultural, vocational and technical institutions at the high school level," Nana Addo said.

Meanwhile, it is still unclear what will be the source of funding for the policy.

The Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Marfo said that the government was considering using the Heritage Fund to finance the policy.

But the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta said the government does not intend touching the Fund for the policy.

Reports, however, say that the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFUND) and petroleum revenues allocated to the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) would be used to fund the policy.

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