FINANCING NON-TERTIARY EDUCATION IN GHANA: A CASE OF THE COMPREHENSIVE FREE PUBLIC SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL PROGRAMME IN GHANA
- 16
- Sep
ABSTRACT: Making secondary education available, accessible and progressively free has been a dream of many developing countries. This motivation is influenced by the high number of secondary school -age children who are not enrolled in school. According to UNESCO (2011), only 34 percent of secondary school-age children are enrolled in class in Africa. In Ghana, current statistics from the Ministry of Education shows that this figure is below 30 percent (25.2%) This has compelled the Government of Ghana to introduce the Comprehensive Free Public SHS programme for the 2017/2018 academic year.
Though, this programme could enhance access and minimise the direct costs associated with participation in secondary education, does the Government have the economic power to make secondary education free, and if no, what are the possible alternatives of achieving high participation in secondary education?. To explore this, relevant secondary data were extracted from various sources and complemented with a desk-based research. Descriptive statistical analysis was performed to determine the trends on secondary education financing using SPSS, version 20.
The implementation of the free secondary education programme could enhance enrolment in secondary education, especially for the most disadvantaged. However, without proper targeting, the Government alone cannot finance secondary education, making the programme unsustainable due to issues of affordability, adequacy and equity. Therefore, to provide meaningful access and participation in secondary education, there should be a cost-sharing policy while designing appropriate interventions for those who cannot really pay.
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