Member of Parliament for Akatsi North in the Volta Region and Ranking Member on the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education, Mr. Peter Nortsu, has urged the government to immediately release the 20 per cent funds promised for the Free Senior High School programme to the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) to enable them run their schools effectively.
Speaking in an interview with Today, the Akatsi North lawmaker explained that credible information available showed that government had fulfilled none of his promises to ensure the smooth take off of its much publicised Free SHS policy.
“Since government started talking about the programme [Free SHS], some of us cautioned government against the financial implications and that they needed to be very cautious but they failed to heed to advice,” he lamented.
The Akatsi North lawmaker maintained that it was very costly to run a free SHS education.
“Schools are about a week or few days to reopen so we just pray that they can release the money that they have promised because the schools are not going to charge any fee for those going for the first year,” Mr. Notsu added.
Meanwhile, General Secretary of the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS), Mr. Samuel Gyebi Yeboah, has openly confirmed that the various Senior High Schools across the country have not received funds for the implementation of the Free SHS programme.
He said “although the Free SHS was starting this September we haven’t received the funds yet. We are, however, optimistic that the government will release the funds to the various schools across the country.”
It would be recalled that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) led administration promised to make 20 per cent of the funds for the implementation of the programme available to the schools before the start of the programme.
