Government releases GHC280m for free SHS
Deputy Finance Minister, Abena Osei-Asare, has given assurance that
government is ready to disburse the funds to allow the smooth
implementation of the free senior high school policy.
She said the
Ministry had finalised preparations to credit the accounts of 647
public SHS and was waiting for the Ministry of Education to provide them
with numbers placed in every school, after placements closed yesterday.
“We
have a list of all the 647 schools and all their account numbers…Latest
by close of day [Friday] all the schools will be credited with the
amounts that they need to roll out the policy,” she stated.
Mrs Osei-Asare announced this at the 57th Annual General Meeting of the Ghana Employers Association held in Accra on Thursday.
She
said government, in consultation with the Conference of Heads of
Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS), had agreed to provide 50% of the
amount needed for the rolling out of the policy, instead of the 20
percent initially decided.
In line with this, government will
disburse GH¢280million of the total GH¢480 million needed to implement
the policy in this academic year.
She also entreated banks, some
of whom were represented at the AGM, to ensure that they notified the
schools as soon as the accounts were credited.
Mrs Osei-Asare
urged Ghanaians to detach politics from the implementation of the policy
and embrace it as a social intervention that would allow all Ghanaians
to have access to basic education up to the senior high school level.
“We
need your support. Let’s not look at it as a political thing but as
social justice…yes the NPP government; President Akuffo Addo will be
credited with it but at the same time let us look at the social aspect,
and that is, we are giving everybody, not just the rich, the opportunity
to get at least, basic education,” she stated.
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