‘Look at your free SHS, are you happy with yourself?’ — TV3's Johnnie Hughes tells Akufo-Addo

Broadcast Journalist Johnnie Hughes has taken on President Akufo-Addo over Free Senior High School (SHS) policy.

Mr Hughes slammed the President for failing to address the challenges facing the policy despite the huge state funds channelled into it.

During the Newday programme on TV3, Mr Hughes stated, “The whole point is that Mr president, you missed the opportunity to scratch the people where they actually itch. You’re still talking about free water and free electricity.”

“Look at your Free SHS, Mr president. Are you happy with yourself? When you sleep, are you able to sleep, Mr president? Because the challenges on the market are too many. Yesterday, you missed the opportunity, Mr president,” he added.

This comes after President Akufo-Addo addressed the country on the updates of Covid-19 and the IMF deal on Sunday, May 28, 2023.

In his speech, the president recounted how expensive it has been to fight covid, adding that free water was provided, and the cost of electricity was subsidized.

“The testing for the millions who went to public laboratories; the quarantine of arrivals from outside the country, hospital admissions, treatments and feeding for all patients were publicly funded and cost vast sums of money. The vaccination programme was expensive, very expensive; even though we received some donated vaccines, we purchased a lot with our own resources, and the multiple country-wide vaccination campaigns cost a lot of money,” president Akufo-Addo said.

He added, “The fumigation, cleansing and disinfection of markets, schools, offices and other public spaces also cost a lot of money. Free water was provided, and the cost of electricity subsidized…Fellow Ghanaians, keeping us all informed about this most unpredictable virus was expensive. A lot of money was spent on public education, public information, risk communication, public and community engagements and keeping us all abreast with the relevant information.”

Free SHS poorly targeted
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) criticised Ghana’s free Senior High School policy saying, although it has increased enrolment, it is poorly targeted.

“Ghana spends close to 4 percent of GDP on education with good results in terms of enrolment

but poor learning outcomes. The flagship programme Free Senior High School (SHS), which covers the full cost of secondary education, has helped increase enrolment but is poorly targeted,” IMF said in a country report released ahead of the approval of the country’s $3 billion bailout.

The report added that key identified areas of “potential improvement of education spending include strengthening primary education resources, better teacher training, and stronger performance-based funding practices.”

The government has spent over GH¢10 billion on free SHS since its introduction in 2017.