The Free SHS Dilemma: Why Mahama’s Visionary Blueprint Must Replace Akufo-Addo’s Populism

The volcanic exchange on the floor of Parliament on July 23, 2026, was not merely a clash of political egos; it was a symptom of a deeply broken educational system GHOne TV. When Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin aggressively launched an attack on the government's handling of the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy, he brought a harsh truth to light. Afenyo-Markin fiercely condemned the administration's total failure to sustain its landmark educational program through internally generated funds (IGF), pointing out the financial hypocrisy of borrowing a staggering $1 billion immediately after exiting an IMF program just to keep state projects afloat. Though he was famously shouted down by Mahama Ayariga—who dynamically weaponized parliamentary numbers by shouting, "I speak for 189 people! You speak for how many?"—Afenyo-Markin’s core indictment remains unassailable GHOne TV.

The crisis we see today is the predictable result of choosing a short-sighted, populist maneuver over a meticulously planned national strategy. While the President Akufo-Addo's administration rushed into an immediate, universal rollout to secure a quick electoral victory, it did so by entirely discarding the sustainable, infrastructure-first blueprint envisioned in President John Dramani Mahama's "Progressive Free SHS" model. Governance requires planning, common sense, and fiscal discipline. By prioritizing political expediency over physical capacity, our secondary education system has been plunged into a perpetual state of crisis. This article serves as a critical diagnostic of how populism broke our schools and why Mahama's original vision remains the only viable path forward to rescue the future of Ghanaian youth.

The Power of Mahama’s Vision vs. The Failure of Akufo-Addo’s Populism

To truly appreciate the depth of the current educational crisis, we must compare the chaotic reality of the present with the structured, visionary model proposed by the previous administration:

• Infrastructure Before Enrollment: President John Dramani Mahama’s model recognized that you cannot house students without classrooms. His administration proactively launched the construction of Community Day Senior High Schools (E-Blocks) to expand physical capacity before expanding enrollment. Akufo-Addo’s populist approach flipped this logic upside down, opening the floodgates first and creating an immediate, catastrophic infrastructure deficit.
• Targeted Equity vs. Reckless Universality: Mahama’s "Progressive Free SHS" prioritized immediate, full funding for day students and vulnerable populations who faced genuine financial exclusion. By contrast, Akufo-Addo’s universal model spends scarce state resources paying boarding and feeding fees for wealthy families who can easily afford it, crippling the national treasury and starving other sectors.
• Protecting Educational Quality: The progressive model aimed to expand secondary education sequentially to ensure that student-teacher ratios, contact hours, and instructional quality were never compromised. Populism, however, traded quality for quantity, resulting in over-congested classrooms and fractured academic calendars.
• Fiscal Sustainability Over Debt: Mahama’s phased implementation allowed state revenues to naturally scale alongside educational costs. Conversely, as Afenyo-Markin aggressively pointed out on the floor of Parliament, the current populist model lacks an internal funding framework, forcing the state into a cycle of massive external dependencies and high-interest borrowing just to buy food for schools GHOne TV.

The University Crisis: "Quantity Over Quality" in Higher Education

The structural failure of the universal Free SHS policy did not stop at the secondary level; it has spilled aggressively into Ghana's tertiary institutions, threatening the value of a Ghanaian university degree. University lecturers across our public campuses have begun sounding the alarm over a sharp and unprecedented decline in the foundational academic abilities of incoming students:

• The Illusion of WASSCE Distinctions: Parliament's Education Committee and academic staff have flagged a deeply troubling paradox. Students arrive at universities boasting straight-A profiles on paper, yet struggle profoundly with basic tertiary tasks Lecturers complaining about quality of students entering our varsities. Reports from the University of Ghana (UG) indicate that a significant majority of incoming students struggle to solve basic algebraic equations or write well-structured essays despite holding high secondary school marks.
• Demands for Entrance Examinations: The drop in foundational student quality is so severe that university lecturers are actively agitating to institute mandatory university entrance examinations Lecturers considering entrance exams for Free SHS graduates.... Faculty members argue they can no longer trust top secondary school grades, as the rushed double-track calendar forces rote-memorization over genuine critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
• Overwhelming Tertiary Infrastructure: As Professor Martin Oteng Ababio of UG bluntly summarized, the policy has “compromised quality for quantity.” While the government focused entirely on inflating secondary school numbers, it completely ignored the downstream effect on universities. Public lecture halls are heavily congested—regularly stuffing 600 to 800 students into single spaces—leaving understaffed faculties completely overwhelmed Professor Martin Oteng Ababio, a senior lecturer at the University of....
• A Breakdown in Independent Learning: Lecturers note that the fragmented, shortened high school cycles under the double-track system failed to instill proper study habits The Performance of Free SHS Products in Tertiary Institutions. Students entering universities now struggle significantly to conduct independent research, analyze complex data sets, or process basic instructions without extensive remedial intervention.

The Structural Fault Lines of the Populist Rollout

As the parliamentary debate highlighted, the structural recklessness of a rushed, un-tempered policy has manifested in devastating operational failures across the country:

• The Double-Track Crisis: Launching a universal program without building new facilities forced the implementation of the disruptive double-track system. Splitting the academic calendar into erratic shifts has left students sitting at home for months at a time, severely fracturing learning consistency.
• Severe Classroom and Dormitory Congestion: Classrooms designed for 35 students now regularly accommodate over 70. This extreme overcrowding compromises health, limits student-teacher interaction, and degrades the learning environment.
• The Privatization of Remedial Costs: While tuition is legally free, the shortened semester cycles have forced desperate parents to pay exorbitant sums for private home tutors to cover the uncompleted syllabi.
• Chronic Logistical and Food Shortages: Due to centralized, erratic budgetary disbursements, headmasters are routinely forced to manage severe food deficits, leaving students undernourished and school administrations heavily indebted.
• Starving Basic and Tertiary Education: Funding Free SHS has resulted in the cannibalization of other educational sectors. Up to 42% of GETFund resources are systematically diverted to cover immediate secondary school feeding debts, completely stalling capital development at the primary and tertiary levels 2026 budget boosts....
• The Abandonment of the E-Blocks: Dozens of uncompleted E-Blocks initiated by the Mahama administration were abandoned or delayed. Leaving these structures to rot while students suffer in congested classrooms represents a massive waste of taxpayer funds purely to deny a political predecessor credit.

Blueprint for Survival: Strategic Recommendations

The Free SHS program is a vital national asset that cannot be allowed to collapse under the weight of bad budgeting. To transition from a politically driven model to a sustainable, world-class educational framework, the government must adopt the following reforms:

• Adopt Means-Testing and Review Universality: Return to the core principle of Mahama's progressive model by targeting state funding strictly toward poor, vulnerable, and marginalized students. Wealthy families should be allowed to pay boarding and feeding fees to alleviate the fiscal burden on the state.
• Abolish the Double-Track System Permanently: Allocate emergency capital funds specifically to expand physical infrastructure—such as classrooms, science laboratories, and dormitories—to restore a unified, continuous academic calendar.
• Complete and Operationalize All E-Blocks: Put aside political tribalism and immediately complete all stalled E-Block projects across the country. This will instantly absorb thousands of students into structured day-school environments and decongest existing institutions.
• Decentralize the Feeding Procurement System: Empower local school boards and buffer stock managers to source food directly from local farmers. This will prevent supply delays, reduce costs, and ensure consistent nutrition for students.
• Establish a Dedicated Education Tax or Fund: Ring-fence a specific, transparent revenue stream solely for secondary school infrastructure. This will stop the dangerous trend of depleting the GETFund and protect basic schools from financial neglect.
• Pass a Comprehensive Free SHS Review Bill: Parliament must enact a bipartisan legislative framework that legalizes minimum quality metrics, student-to-teacher ratios, and independent oversight to ensure no future administration can compromise educational standards for votes.

The debate surrounding Free SHS is not about whether secondary education should be accessible; it is about whether we care enough to make it sustainable. Rushing into a policy without an infrastructural roadmap or a realistic funding strategy—as Afenyo-Markin rightly pointed out—was an act of political expediency that Ghana is now paying for dearly GHOne TV. Our children deserve world-class classrooms, not overcrowded holding spaces. They deserve continuous terms, not a disjointed shift system that compromises their academic competitiveness and leaves them lagging behind at the university level Lecturers complaining about quality of students entering our varsities.

True leadership lies in the courage to course-correct. It is time for stakeholders, policymakers, and citizens alike to demand an immediate structural overhaul of the Free SHS policy. We must reject the shortcomings of unsustainable populism and embrace a robust, progressive framework that balances expanded access with absolute quality. Let us build the schools first, secure the funding second, and educate the nation permanently. Ghana's future depends entirely on it.

✍️ Retired Senior Citizen
For and on behalf of all Senior Citizens of the Republic of Ghana 🇬🇭

📍 Teshie-Nungua
📧 akpaluck@gmail.com

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