A policy analyst at the Integrated Social Development Center (ISODEC), Dr. Steve Manteaw has underscored the need for government to undertake a national dialogue on free SHS financing to enable it do a proper projection in terms of the cost and financing of the free Senior High School policy.
Speaking on Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa 102.5 FM Thursday, Dr. Manteaw said the free SHS policy is a viable programme that is workable under Ghana’s current economy.
“In the year that Uganda introduced their free SHS policy some ten years ago, their economy was worth 12 billion US dollars, while in our case, we are introducing the policy at a time the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Ghana was worth 37.54 billion US dollars. If some small size economy in our region has been able to task its GDP to finance free SHS in its jurisdiction why can’t Ghana do same with such a size of our economy?, he quizzed.
For him, it is not economically prudent to spend the Heritage Fund on recurrent expenditure in the sector and that won’t yield the benefits that we want, hence sustaining such an expenditure will be a problem in the future.
The Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Marfo on Tuesday said the government would be looking at the option of funding its much hyped free SHS policy from the Heritage Fund, a development which has sparked public debates from stakeholders on the move by government.
The Heritage Fund is a strategic endowment reserve established to “support the development for future generations when Ghana’s petroleum reserves have been depleted”, according to the Petroleum Revenue Management Act of 2011.
Dr. Steve Mateaw in his view said government must move away from always looking for easy options out of a difficult task.
He said “a more innovative way for solving the difficult situation we find ourselves” is laudable instead of depleting our resources in the oil revenue with such recurrent investment.
Dr Manteaw maintained that using the Heritage Fund on the free SHS policy is not the way to go.
