Hasten slowly with Free SHS Bill – Association of Private Schools to govt
The Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS) has urged the government to hasten slowly on the Free Senior High School Bill intended to be laid before Parliament.
The association, in a statement signed by its President, Prof. Damasus Tuurosing, “advised the government to hasten slowly on this bill and give sufficient time for stakeholder consultations”.
The Free Senior High School (SHS) bill aims to enshrine the policy into law and ensure its implementation by all successive governments.
According to GNAPS, “it is worried because characteristic of how important education decisions are handled in this country, private schools, which account for 49% of educational establishments and 33% of pre-tertiary enrolments in Ghana, have been side-lined in deliberations on the Bill”.
It will be recalled that the former Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Professor Stephen Adei, also admonished the government to consider a stakeholder engagement on the proposed bill on Free Senior High School.
According to him, if the majority in parliament is ready to present the bill before the house, they should do so transparently.
“If they are coming out, let them come out so that we will all have an opportunity, but this advanced possible rejection and saying that it will solve all problems, then we must all be dead because you are saying that we shouldn’t do anything about health until we have solved all problems in health. That is a loose argument,” he said.
“I believe that whatever the law is when it comes out, it will give some of us an opportunity to know what the government is thinking about, what they are pushing forward, and we will either ask them to be treated, opposed or reject it,” he noted.
Find GNAPS’s full statement below;