The Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has revealed that more than 3,046,172 students were enrolled in senior high school under the Free SHS policy between 2017 and 2024, describing the programme as a structural break from Ghana’s past.
During a policy lecture, Mr Afenyo-Markin encouraged his audience to allow the figure to “settle,” asserting that the numbers signify more than mere statistics; they embody lives influenced by public policy.
He argued that before the intervention, access to secondary education was significantly determined by household income, irrespective of constitutional assurances.
“The brilliant child of a poor parent sat at home. The less gifted child of a wealthy parent went to school. That was Ghana’s reality.”
He stated that the reform extended beyond merely eliminating tuition fees.
It broadened the state’s responsibilities to encompass the provision of meals for students in senior high schools, including day students, thus alleviating the indirect costs that often compelled families to withdraw their children.
He maintained that the wider social impacts became apparent over time, noting reductions in streetism, child labour, and teenage pregnancy in communities where young individuals, especially girls, continued their education.
“The difficulty of finding young domestic workers that some people complained about was not a social problem,” he remarked. “It was social progress.”
Mr. Afenyo-Markin positioned the policy within a framework that regards education as the fundamental driver of economic mobility and national productivity.
In his evaluation, Free SHS transformed secondary education from a formal entitlement on paper into a tangible right for children who would have otherwise been marginalised.
