Free SHS not the huge elephant in the room- Deputy Finance Minister

Deputy Finance Minister Dr John Kumah has explained that the government’s flagship educational policy, the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) initiative, is not draining the public purse.

According to him, the real “elephant in the room” draining the public purse is the country’s debt, as the Free SHS policy does not override the government’s total expenditure for other policies aimed at making life meaningful for Ghanaians.

“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 in an interview monitored by The Ghana Report on Citi FM.

The deputy finance minister emphasized the importance of Free SHS and the benefits to the vulnerable.

“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 noted.

Dr Kumah also assured of the government’s commitment to achieving growth to ease the burden on the ordinary citizen.

“We want to achieve growth in the midst of fiscal constraints,” he stressed.