Declining tertiary transition rate despite free SHS — Kofi Asare

Ghana's tertiary enrollment rate continues to fall despite the implementation of the free senior high school (SHS) policy, according to education think tank Africa Education Watch.

In a Facebook post, the group's Executive Director Kofi Asare shared statistics of a drop in the percentage of students transitioning from SHS to tertiary studies.

He wrote: "The second batch of free SHS graduates completed WASSCE in 2021 with 446k candidates, of which 164k (36%) entered tertiary in 2021/22. The 2022 data suggests that some 280k SHS graduates could not proceed to tertiary that year."

Kofi Asare attributed the declining transition rate to financing challenges for needy students.

He noted the Student Loan Scheme (SLS) is inadequate as "The average student loan of GHC 2,000/year can only finance the cost of tertiary education for two months-It costs about GHC 15k a year to study at tertiary."

To improve this situation, the education advocate wants the SLS "re-positioned to first support needy prospective tertiary students to become tertiary students; Pay economically responsive amounts as loans."

He emphasized that more must be done given Ghana's goal of reaching a 40% gross tertiary enrollment rate by 2030.

“However, we cannot improve secondary-tertiary transition as value addition to free SHS if the posture and financing mechanisms of the SLS are not recalibrated,” he stated.