Former Finance Minister Seth Terkper has proposed that the free senior high school program be limited to day students, similar to the systems in the US and Europe. Mr. Terkper argues that the boarding system in these regions is available primarily to the most talented and deserving students, who receive scholarships to attend.
He asked why the entire expense of the free senior high school program should be borne by the Ghanaian government. In 2027, the Akufo-Addo administration implemented free SHS in Ghana. The scheme has so far cost GHS 9.9 billion.
When asked how the future Mahama government would raise money to support initiatives like free SHS even though it had promised to reduce some taxes, he said. “Those in the diaspora, please you need to come into this discussion. Secondary education is free in Europe, and secondary education is free in the US but they are day schools,”he told TV3.
“The best government is doing, for instance in the US, is to put in yellow buses which you have to stop to give priority to the buses to take the kids to school. “So rich developed countries started the boarding school system, and today, when you go to the boarding school college, it is the elite, you have to pay a lot and so it is only rich people who have to take their kids to those schools and talented kids who get scholarships.
Why don’t we follow their examples? What makes us think that we should support free SHS unfettered? Unfettered in the sense that the government tales every cost. The warning came in 2018 early in the administration when we used GHS2.2 billion of bond to support free.”
Mr. Joe Jackson, the CEO of Dalex Finance, questioned how the prospective Mahama administration would pay for development if he eliminated all of the taxes he had pledged to do away with.
Mr. Jackson believes that managing the economy will be extremely difficult, particularly in light of the party’s platform promise to eliminate certain taxes, such as the e-levy. John Dramani Mahama, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate, is remembered for promising Ghanaians that he would eliminate certain nuisance taxes during his first 100 days in government before to the general elections in 2024.
