Deputy Finance
Minister Dr. John Kumah has clarified that the government’s educational policy,
the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) policy, is not taking a toll on the
public purse as has been speculated.
According to
him, the monies spent on Free SHS cannot override the government’s total
expenditure on other policies, and that the real “elephant in the room” is the
country’s debt.
“It’s not true
that Free SHS is a huge elephant in the room. The allocation for Free SHS in
the 2023 budget was GH¢2.9 billion, and the entire appropriation for the year
was GH¢228 billion. You cannot tell me that if you are spending GH¢2.9 billion
out of GH¢228 billion, that is the elephant in the room. And this is covering
over 1.3 million Ghanaian children. The elephant in the room is our debt, the
interest payments we made,” Dr. Kumah said on Eyewitness News ahead
of the 2023 mid-year budget review.
The Deputy
Finance Minister emphasized the importance of Free SHS and the benefits that
the vulnerable stand to gain.
“The impact and
benefits of Free SHS go to the core of the vulnerable and, of course, the
future of the human resource of our country. And for me, that is
non-negotiable,” he stated.
He assured of
the government’s commitment to achieve growth to ease the burden on the
ordinary citizen.
He assured of the government’s commitment to achieve growth to ease the burden on the ordinary citizen.
“We want to
achieve growth in the midst of fiscal constraints,” he said.
The Finance
Minister has stepped forward to defend the initiative, emphasizing the moral
responsibility to ensure that every Ghanaian child has access to education.
One of the major
issues is related to feeding, with some schools struggling to provide adequate
meals for their students due to funding and supply constraints.
As a result,
there have been concerns that some schools may even have to consider shutting
down if these problems persist.
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