Broad stakeholder consultation is vital to sustaining Ghana’s Free SHS programme, analyst warns

Ghana’s Free Senior High School programme has opened secondary education to more students, but weak consultation could threaten its future, a policy analyst has warned.

Dr Jacob Oppong Nkansah, a lecturer and policy analyst at the University of Education, Winneba, raised the concern at a public lecture in Accra titled “Improved Access, Quality Questioned: A Report on Nine Years of Ghana’s Free SHS.” The event was organised by the Centre for Policy Scrutiny.

Nkansah said teachers, principals, graduates and non-teaching staff had identified gaps in consultation during the policy’s formulation and implementation. Although the programme reduced financial barriers for poorer households and expanded access, questions remain over stakeholder ownership, programme design and long-term financing.

The study examined schools across four geographical zones, including Category A, B, C and D institutions, using a qualitative phenomenological approach. Participants identified the official goal of reducing educational inequality and helping disadvantaged and first-generation students. Some also believed electoral considerations and campaign promises influenced the policy, raising concerns about its continuity under successive governments.

CPS Executive Director Dr Adu Owusu Sarkodie said the programme’s problems, including overcrowding, should be addressed rather than used as grounds for abandoning it. He called Free SHS one of the Fourth Republic’s most transformational social interventions, saying its social and economic rationale remained strong. Investment in education, he said, could reduce poverty, raise incomes and build human capital. He added that Ghana needed an educated workforce, including skilled workers in the informal sector, to improve productivity, professionalism and earnings. The CPS research is expected to offer recommendations on the programme’s achievements and challenges.