By: Dr Christopher Yaw Appiah
Free SHS is a good policy. It is enshrined in Article 25 (b) of Ghana’s 1992 constitution which was approved by way of a referendum on 28th April 1992 with the set-out schedule becoming law on January 7th 1993 which only had the NDC in that chamber on 7th January 1993 after the NPP had boycotted parliament. We need to guard the Free SHS jealously, and all academics like myself must guard it with an honest presentation of facts.
The failure of the present NPP government to acknowledge the challenges of the Free SHS and the gagging of any other voice that seeks to contribute to shaping the improvement of the policy is akin to an authoritarian posture.
Despite the policy’s successes, not everything is right with the policy. As academics and stakeholders in education, we must defend this policy which has come to stay using truth and evidence-based communication. With a posture of seeing no wrong hear no wrong with this policy, the future of the policy remains challenged at least in its funding and sustainability spheres.
This is why any alternative suggestion to have a dedicated legislated funding stream for the Free SHS is not only spot on but very timely and should be where greater attention should be for all Ghanaians. Any narrative that suggests the political party flagbearers will cancel the policy because of his proposed review should therefore be received with all the contempt it deserves, such persons are viewed as being only dishonest and very unprincipled person(s) because review can never at any material time mean cancellation.
The policy surely requires a review with the view to improving it, making, and decentralization the food provision, having a designated funding stream and giving teachers and parents a say in how our schools are managed.
Another critical dimension to the discourse on the Free SHS is the exact impact by way of educational access that Free SHS has made. The question of how much has been spent is a domain I will shelve for another time. The questions that all Ghanaians must ask are
Let me indicate that it is dishonesty and irredeemably unacademic for such lies, deception and dishonesty to continue. If our moral community do not care about the continued accommodation of deceptive leaders, chronic liars and deliberate falsehood peddlers for political power, then we all ought to shut our churches, mosques and shrines so we follow our passion, and desires without any religious restraint. Where is the Moral Vision of the country?
In light of this, I throw light on what exactly the data should look like and nothing close to the over 5 million Ghanaians that the New Patriotic Party have been peddling about and even advertising. I present the total number of students who sat for the BECE exams for the various years since the Free SHS policy commenced.
Table 1: Total pupils who sat for or wrote BECE exams since Free SHS introduction in 2017
|
Year |
Number who sat for both private and public Candidate Exams |
|
|
|
|
Sept 2017 |
468,060 |
|
2018 |
509,827 |
|
2019 |
517,331 |
|
2020 |
531,707 |
|
2021 |
572,167 |
|
2022 |
552,288 |
|
2023 |
600,714 |
|
2024 |
569,236 |
|
Total who sat for exams in 8 years |
3,803,999 |
|
Number of students who did not qualify to enroll for SHS for 2017 to 2019**(3 years) |
117,441 |
|
Estimated Yearly average of students who do not qualify to enroll in Secondary School 2020 to 2024(5 years×39,147) |
195,735 |
|
Total Eligible BECE students to enroll into SHS less of 2017-2019 non qualified students |
3,686,558 |
|
Total Eligible students to enroll in SHS less of 2020-2024 non qualified students |
3,490,823 |
|
Actual enrolled 88% all eligible BECE graduates enrolled for SHS due to FSHS |
3,071,924 |
Source: West Africa Examination Council Annual Releases 2017-2024, Ministry of Education, News portals online,https://citinewsroom.com/2018/08/waec-releases-results-for-2018-bece-candidates/
**An average of 39,147 BECE students either do not pass or get their full results cancelled or for one reason or another do not qualify and are not eligible to get enrolled in Secondary School Every Year using data from 2017
As presented in Table 1, we know that even if every Ghanaian child who sat for BECE both school and private exams were to attend secondary school by way of Free SHS, the number would not even reach 4 million. It is therefore very deceptive, simply lies and unhealthy for anybody to quote 5.7 million or 5 million numbers FSHS beneficiaries. Where do the nearly 2.5 million children come from or the 1.76 million children come from? It is important to note that not all the pupils sit for the exams Even if 94% of the students enrol for the FSHS, this would still not reach even 4 million students.
However, the evidence from the NPP’s tracker shows as of 2023, as indicated here http://performancetracker.gov.gh/metrics/821, 88% of all pupils who write the BECE exams are placed to enjoy secondary education as opposed to 2016 when the percentage was 73.5%. which had moved from 72.2%. reflecting a 1.3% reduction in unenrolled qualified BECE graduates eligible to enrol in Secondary School.
This suggests a natural/nomalised decline in the unenrolled eligible BECE graduates suggesting an improvement in the number of qualified students who would have enrolled in secondary school from 2015 towards 2016 and into the subsequent years without the effect of Free SHS.
On trend analysis, a yearly increase in the number of eligible BECE graduates to SHS by 1.2% would have a nominal year-on-year net increase of 9.6% assuming the increase were static (1.2%*8 years) resulting in the percentage of enrolled BECE graduates to SHS reaching 83.1%. in 2024. The difference in percentage enrollment between the effect of FSHS and what would normally have happened without FSHS is a 4.9% increase in access – A commendable feat.
More to that, not all the BECE students who sat for the exams qualified to enrol for the Free SHS programme either because they either failed or had their results cancelled or for other reasons.
An illustration is where in 2017, 420,135 sat for the BECE exams but 36,836 students did not pass, and in 2018 486,641 pupils passed while 23,186 pupils didn’t pass while in 2019 459,912 passed but 57,419 pupils didn’t pass (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/RonaldMensah/publication/364815324/figure/tbl1/AS:11431281092649426@1666933956623/Trend-of-enrollment-at-secondaryEducation-2015-2019.png.
These data suggest that for the years 2017,2018 and 2019 alone, a total of 117,441 pupils who sat for BECE did not qualify for SHS and would certainly not be eligible to benefit from the Free SHS policy.
In all, 195,735 is the estimated number of pupils who would not be eligible to enrol in SHS between 2020 and 2024 informed by the available data from the total numbers who sat for the BECE exams from 2017 to 2019.
If we discount a yearly average of 39,147 BECE students who either do not pass or get their full results cancelled or for one reason or other do not qualify and are not eligible to get enrolled in Secondary School Every Year using data from 2017. The total number of eligible students to benefit from FSHS would now stand at 3,490,823
At present 88% of all students enrolled on Secondary/Technical Education reported having benefitted from Free SHS as indicated on the NPP tracker, the actual number of Free SHS beneficiaries totals 3,071,924 and not anywhere closer to 5,000,000 Ghanaian children or the 5,700,000 million falsehoods being churned out.
The deliberate churning out of this number could only mean that there must have been a plan to use the fictitious 5 million plus number to compute some financial or budgetary allocation unknown to Ghanaianpeople Other than that, Ghanaians need a further explanation why this deliberate lies and deception with FSHS data.
In conclusion, the analysis suggests that if not for Free SHS, using a trend analysis of students who would have attended/enrolled into secondary education anyway,83.1% of total BECE graduates would have gone ahead to/enrol into attend SHS regardless of the FSHS policy.
The FSHS policy with its reported 88% enrollment percentage has contributed to increasing or fostering an additional net increase of 4.9%. This is commendable and justifies the policy. Greater attention should be on how to secure a dedicated funding source for its sustainability.
The NPP government must cease henceforth, the deliberate lies, deception and distortion of the actual numbers of the Free SHS beneficiaries. This does not engender credibility in measuring intervention effects and outcomes.
The 5 million or 5.7 million numbers bandied out as beneficiaries are not supported by any data whatsoever, not from the Education Ministry WAEC or any other source. If the strategy is to persistently peddle these lies so the numbers can be used to justify any financial and non-existing expenditure shortly when accountability is required, then this strategy won’t stand the test of accountability.
The Moral community should start speaking about the politics of lies, deception and deliberate distortion of facts and our national data as it does not help build Ghana into evidence-based development. Politics without principles and leadership without integrity is Evil and our pastors, Apostles, Imams and Chief Priest must speak against it as a canker to building an enduring Moral Vision
About the Author
The Author is a distinguished academic, population health scientist and a Senior Lecturer at the Sociology and Social Work Department, KNUST, and one who believes in possessing the Nation with Truth
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