Free SHS -what is being offered free here?

I am not too excited about the free SHS not because I don't appreciate the fact there is the need to have affordable quality education for all but, just that everything free in this world always turns out to be too expensive. Come to think of it, what is being offered free here? Anyway, Primary Education in the public schools is almost free in Ghana, how many of us send our children to those schools? In fact, I need serious investors who will put up good Senior High Schools (SHS) and soon they will be laughing to the Bank. There will be no need for any advertisement, parents and their wards will come knocking.

The hard reality is that GHs 1,102.67 paid to schools by government across board per term for borders and GHs 748.47 for day students would be highly inadequate to run most of these schools effectively. It takes much more per student per term to maintain certain facilities in Prempeh, Opoku Ware, Achimota, Adisadel,Ghana National, Preset etc than it will take per student in less endowed schools. The running cost of these schools cannot be compared to that of Sherigu SHS, Kpandai SHS, Kongo SHS, Wulugu SHS etc. It is therefore not surprising that authorities of some of these first class schools have started charging unapproved fees. Anyone who has gone through the secondary school system in Ghana especially as border will know that facilities across these schools differ to the extend that the quality of meals offered to students differ. It all has to do with cost and who is willing to pay. I remember delays by government in releasing feeding grants for northern schools could easily caused the very deprived schools in the north to close down quickly whilst their counterparts in the same circumstance but with little more resources continue to run on internally generated funds until the release of funds.

What is even more sickening in our world today is the rise of populism driven by a new breed of populist leaders across the world. Not just in the Americas, not Europe, not Asia, not in the Arab world alone but also in sub-Saharan Africa where these populist leaders just believe to have political solution to all our economic problems. This euphoria is so sucking to the extend that everyone is almost always whipped into line in every populist political decision. Non seems to be critical, non seems to question, non seems to care, non seems to probe for those answers that are relevant. Fact 1.The educational system has been under funded over the years even without FSHS. Fact 2. That GET Fund has been milked dried and has become irrelevant though there is a special levy as a funding source. Fact 3. That the public free basic educational system has collapsed given way now to a booming private basic educational system in the name of free universal basic education. Fact 4. The current implementation of FSHS is an indirect privatization of SHS educational system in the long round taking a queue from Fact 3.

If you still care to know more; between 30-40% of graduates from the free public basic schools (JHS) will only make the cut-off grade to be qualified for FSHS. However, 80-90% of private JHS candidates and some few relatively fee paying public JHS's will make the cut-off grade to be qualified for the free SHS. The 60-70% of candidates from these free public basic schools (JHS's) who will not make the cut-off grade for the FSHS will end up in private SHS's where they will be required to pay full fees. It is a known fact that the poor in society send their children to free public basic schools. Who is then the target of FSHS? Is it then the case that the poor in society today are subsidizing education for the rich? Your answer is as good as .....