Ghana needs an honest conversation about Free SHS.

If the goal is to preserve free secondary education while making it fairer and more sustainable, one option deserves serious consideration:

Make Category A Senior High Schools fee-paying, while keeping Categories B and C free.

This is not an argument against Free SHS. It is an argument against pretending that all public secondary schools are the same when policymakers know they are not.

THE INEQUALITY OF EQUAL TREATMENT

Ghana’s secondary schools are deliberately categorised. Category A schools generally attract the highest demand, have more competitive admissions and, in many cases, enjoy stronger infrastructure, facilities and historical advantages.

Yet the State largely applies the same blanket subsidy to students across the system.

That may look equal. It is not necessarily equitable.

Treating unequal circumstances identically can itself produce inequality.

The question should therefore be simple:

Are scarce public resources being directed where they are most needed?

THE CONSTITUTIONAL QUESTION

Article 25(1)(a) of the 1992 Constitution makes basic education free, compulsory and available to all.

For secondary education, Article 25(1)(b) uses different language. It requires secondary education to be made generally available and accessible through appropriate means, “in particular, by the progressive introduction of free education.”

That distinction matters.

The constitutional provision does not simply say that every form of secondary education must be permanently and universally free regardless of circumstances.

It establishes accessibility as the objective and progressive free education as the means.

That leaves room for Parliament and policymakers to examine differentiated financing models, provided any reform complies with the Constitution and applicable law.

FREE DOES NOT HAVE TO MEAN IDENTICAL

Making Category A schools fee-paying does not have to mean abandoning Free SHS.

Quite the opposite.

Categories B and C could remain fully free, while Category A schools introduce regulated fees alongside a strong scholarship and means-tested exemption system.

A poor child who earns admission to a Category A school should not be turned away because of poverty.

But why should the State provide exactly the same subsidy to a family that can comfortably contribute as it provides to one struggling to keep a child in school?

Those who can afford to contribute should contribute. Those who cannot should be protected.

That is not abandoning Free SHS. It is targeting public support according to need.

THE MORAL QUESTION

Public money is limited.

Every cedi spent subsidising one student is a cedi that cannot be spent elsewhere.

Across Ghana, schools still need classrooms, laboratories, libraries, sanitation, furniture, teacher accommodation and technology.

So ask the uncomfortable question:

Should the State provide the same blanket subsidy to a child from a wealthy household attending a highly sought-after Category A school while another child in a poorly resourced school lacks basic facilities?

That is the point at which equality can become inequity.

The morally defensible principle is straightforward:

Support those who need support. Ask those who can afford it to contribute.

LET CATEGORY A HELP PAY FOR QUALITY

Regulated fees at Category A schools could also generate additional resources for those institutions.

With strict oversight, the money could support laboratories, libraries, ICT, maintenance, teaching materials and other facilities.

But this cannot become a licence for schools to charge whatever they want.

There should be:

Government-approved fee ceilings; transparent accounts; audited expenditure; scholarships and means-tested exemptions; protection against discrimination; and parliamentary and public oversight.

The objective would be targeted cost-sharing, not the commercialisation of public education.

THE COMMON-SENSE TEST

Imagine two students.

One comes from a family capable of paying towards his or her education and secures admission to one of Ghana’s most sought-after Category A schools.

The other comes from a poor rural household and attends a less-resourced school.

Why should the State insist on giving both families the same level of subsidy?

Equal treatment does not automatically produce equal opportunity.

The better question is:

Are we distributing public resources fairly?

DO NOT PUNISH MERIT. TARGET NEED.

A child should not be punished for earning admission to a Category A school.

Nor should poverty prevent that child from taking up the place.

That is why the model must combine fees with scholarships and means-tested exemptions.

Category A can charge. Poverty must not be a barrier.

The distinction is between a school’s ability to charge and a child’s ability to pay.

WHAT ABOUT CATEGORIES B AND C?

This is potentially where the greatest benefit lies.

If Category A schools recover part of their costs from families able to pay, government could direct more of its limited resources towards improving Categories B and C.

Better classrooms. Better laboratories. Better dormitories. Better sanitation. Better libraries. Better ICT.

Rather than pretending every school is identical, government could use public money to close the quality gap.

That would give Free SHS a more meaningful definition.

Free education should not simply mean that government pays the bill.

It should mean that every Ghanaian child has access to a decent secondary education.

THE REAL QUESTION

Critics will ask whether charging fees at Category A schools undermines Free SHS.

That deserves a serious answer.

But so does the opposite question:

Does giving every student the same blanket subsidy necessarily produce the fairest education system?

Ghana should be willing to examine different financing models without treating the words “Free SHS” as the end of the debate.

The objective should be accessible, quality and equitable secondary education, financed in a way that makes responsible use of limited public resources.

And here is the uncomfortable question policymakers should answer:

If Ghana deliberately categorises its secondary schools because they are not identical, why should it pretend they are identical when allocating scarce public resources?

That is not necessarily equality.

It can be equality without equity.