Free SHS has improved quality secondary education — Bawumia

Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia says the quality of secondary education has improved significantly under the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy, contrary to views held by many.

He said despite the substantial increase in enrolments recorded under the policy, students were performing relatively better in WASSCE than in previous years.

“Compared to the poor performance that we saw in 2015 regarding the aggregate passes in the core subjects in WASSCE, we have 41 per cent and in 2022, the aggregate passes increased to 64 per cent,” he said.

Many education stakeholders hold the view that the quality of secondary education has dipped under Free SHS with a good number of them calling for a review.

Vice President Bawumia, who was speaking at the opening session of the 56th congress of the National Union of Ghana Students at the University of Cape Coast, said that the situation was completely different.

“People assume that with the expansion of access, quality will suffer, and performance will decline, and this is essentially saying that the Law of Gravity will have to be obeyed but access has expanded, and performance has improved and therefore we have defied the law of gravity,” he maintained.

Dr Bawumia further averred that Free SHS had enhanced gender parity at the Senior High School level the policy did not discriminate.

He also touted other government policies and achievements, including the investments in Technical and Vocational Education Training, promotion of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and provision of free Wi-Fi in various schools and institutions.

He said the government’s commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4, strived to ensure inclusive and quality education for all was evident in the continuous efforts to expand educational opportunities and enhance learning outcomes.