Pre-tertiary teacher unions have called on the Minister of Education to suspend the proposed Free Senior High School (SHS) Bill, urging the need for broader consultations.
They emphasized the importance of creating a funding act to support free SHS rather than legislating the policy.
The unions underscored various education policies aimed at enhancing the country’s education system and referenced the Anamuah Mensah education policy, which focused on improving senior high school education, and the Education Regulatory Bodies Act 2020 (Act 1023) along with the Pre-tertiary Education Act 2020 (Act 1049), both designed to enhance teaching and learning.
The teacher unions expressed surprise at the current Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum’s intention to lay the Free SHS Act before Parliament without adequate consultation.
Thomas Musah Tanko, General Secretary of GNAT, emphasized the need for a funding act instead of the proposed bill.
“While we are talking now, the School Feeding Programme is a problem. How do we sustain the 1.4 million students we have in school? How do we sustain basic schools and kindergartens? We need an act now, and the act needed is funding for pre-tertiary education in Ghana. This law can be put aside for now,” he stated.
Angel Carbonu, President of NAGRAT, also called on the Minister of Education to halt the Free SHS Act and allow for broader stakeholder engagement.
“I want the President to stop sending any bill of a sort to Parliament. They should suspend it immediately and allow wider stakeholder engagement. I also call on the Parliamentary Select Committee to desist from working on any such document that has been sent to them by the President,” Mr. Carbonu said.
King Ali Awudu, President of the Coalition of Concerned Teachers, urged the sector minister to engage stakeholders.
“We have a law on pre-tertiary education, and you are bringing this? What difference is it going to make? The 1992 Constitution already states that basic education should be free. So, there are already constitutional provisions backing the Free Senior High School policy. If you want to bring in a Free SHS Bill, it is just good that you carry us along,” he remarked.
The unions insist that any new legislation should be focused on securing funding to address existing challenges in the education sector, including capitation grants and the sustainability of the School Feeding Programme.
