IMF pledges to protect Free SHS from collapsing. The team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has described the Free Senior High School programme as innovative and needs to be protected.
The team on Wednesday, July 13 concluded its initial visit to Ghana after the country requested a financial bailout.
The team, which arrived in Ghana on Tuesday, July 5 and began work the day after, gathered data from meetings with several key stakeholders including Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia in an effort to ascertain what the country can qualify for.
Among the key concerns since President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo asked his Finance Minister, Kenneth Nana Yaw Kuntunkunuku Ofori-Atta, to contact the IMF for an Enhanced Domestic Programme (EDP) is what will become of the Free SHS Programme, which is said to be one of the expenditure affecting the public purse.
But the IMF team has assured the government that the Programme will rather ensure “efficiency and sustainability” of the flagship education policy.
ALSO READ John Mahama’s speech at Ghana at a crossroads event [Full text]
“We are still at an early stage in the discussions, but we believe that the free Senior High School (SHS) is an innovative policy that needs to be protected,” the Fund stated in its FAQs after the conclusion of the team’s visit on Wednesday.
“In general, IMF-supported programs seek to boost social spending while encouraging both efficiency and sustainability.
“As discussed above, the IMF-supported program would aim at protecting the vulnerable and creating conditions for an inclusive growth.”
Background information on Free SHS
The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Tuesday, 12th September, 217, launched the Free Senior High School policy, describing the programme as the means to creating a society of opportunities and empowerment for every citizen.
At a ceremony at the West Africa Senior High School, President Akufo-Addo noted that he made the Free SHS pledge “because I know that knowledge and talent are not for the rich and privileged alone, and that free education widens the gates of opportunities to every child, especially those whose talents are arrested because of poverty.”
President Akufo-Addo noted that the countries that have made rapid progress around the world put education at the heart of their development, referencing the transition to publicly funded high school education by the United States in the mid nineteenth century.
“It must have been a daunting prospect at the time – paying for the education of so many children, for such an extended period of time out of limited public resources, transferring a potential workforce away from immediate productivity for an investment like schooling. But the experiment paid off,” the President said.
He continued, “America set herself up for 20th century success, creating a workforce fit for rapid economic development, which has inspired the emergence of the most powerful economy so far known to human history. Indeed, other nations, who began their lives as independent states at the same time as we did, like Singapore, Malaysia and Korea, have emulated a similar model and have also achieved great economic success. In fact, in their case, they followed Japan’s excellent example.”
It is for this reason, the President noted that, Ghana, under his leadership, is determined to follow suit.
SOURCE: 3news
