#FreeSHS: Expanding access through private sector participation

This Government is private sector development oriented. It should never risk being credited in history has the one that contributed to the collapse of private senior secondary school system. Although in the advanced education systems, private schools are largely not considered under free secondary education programmes, we can contextualize our situation as Uganda did (free secondary education is also offered by selected private schools). Instead of posting 800 students at Methodist Girls at Mamfi (exceeding their capacity by 400) for instance, we can increase the physical spaces at secondary schools by including the private schools in the school selection and placement process.

However, parents and students could be advised that by choosing private secondary schools, they agree to pay to the schools any additional fees not covered by the free SHS programme. In this way, we would be killing three birds with one stone: reducing pressure on our public secondary school system by controlling class size and teacher-student ratio, helping sustain the private secondary schools with open access to all at a reduced cost to parents, and affording parents and students a choice of private or public secondary education whilst under free SHS.

To the private education providers, this is an opportune time for them to provide high quality secondary education that can compete strongly with the public secondary schools. At the basic school level, they've demonstrated their capacity to outperform the public schools to become the preferred choice. But I can understand that operating a private primary or junior secondary school is less capital intensive than a secondary school. This is why they should consider merging and combining their resources to compete with the public secondary schools, they can even form chain of schools under the same name but different management team, leveraging on the financial strengths and weaknesses of partners……education service provision is a business and must be approached from strong commercial awareness.

But generally, both the Government and private school providers must act as partners in education service delivery, and should engage more in exploring a permanent solution to the issue.

#forGodandCountry #AdvocacyWork #freeSHS