Implementation of free SHS was rushed, poorly executed because it was a vote buying policy – Expert

William Boadi, Chief Executive Director of Educate Africa Institute (EAI), has argued that the implementation of the free senior high school policy was rushed.

He claimed that President Nana Addo’s decision to immediately implement the Senior High School policy after winning the 2016 elections was politically motivated.

In an exclusive interview with Nyankonton Mu Nsem on Rainbow Radio 87.5Fm, he stated that the FSHS policy should have been implemented in 2020 rather than 2017 when the necessary preparations were not made.

"The best time to implement this policy as a nation, if we meant business and wanted to build the nation, was 2020. However, it was politically created, implemented, and targeted. 2017 was the year when planning should have begun. To address the deficit, we could have focused on infrastructure. You don’t introduce a policy and then implement it in the same year. You don’t appoint a minister who doesn’t understand education.”

He claimed that the government’s failure to properly implement the policy resulted in several challenges and that when headmasters complained, they were intimidated, demoted, harassed, and sacked.

"The policy was rushed because the government wanted to keep power in 2020 but failed to prioritise policy quality. When the challenges began, some headmasters who complained were harassed, demoted, and in some cases fired because the government interpreted their actions as sabotage. The policy was implemented not to improve education, but to buy votes.”

To him, the assessment done by the IMF on free SHS was not new because several experts had already advised the government to target instead of the wholesale implementation.

"The IMF’s assessment of free SHS is not new. We have repeatedly urged the government to focus on implementation. They refused to listen, and today, the IMF raised the same concerns we had previously raised. We also advised the government to change the policy and implement a scholarship programme, as well as to identify children from poor families who would benefit from the policy.”