GES And Ministry Of Education: Government Investment In Free SHS Is Paying Off

The Management of Ghana Education Service and Ministry of Education have stated that the introduction of free Senior High School by the government of Ghana is paying off.

According to the slides and documents released by the GES, access to Senior High Schools has increased from approximately 880,000 in 2016 to well over 1.2 millions learners.

GES believes that contrary to the concerns that increasing access to SHS will negatively affect quality, the WASSCE results over the past two years of Free SHS students show that quality is NOT being compromised.

Backing their claim with statistics, GES indicated that the candidates from 2021 are the pioneers of the Double Track School Calendar introduced in 2018.The results show that their performance is the second best in the past 7 years.

“This points to the fact that the Double Track School Calendar was a game-changer in allowing more students to have access to Free Quality SHS education without compromising quality.” They retorted.

From the statistics made available by WAEC to GES, the average of A1-C6 passes in the core subject areas over the 7-year period (2015-2021) and it shows that over 50% of candidates consistently attained A1-C6 in the 4 core subject areas between 2017 and 2021.

Significantly the statistics available shows that the 2020 and 2021 (Free SHS Candidates) attained 60% in aggregate percentage passes in the core subject areas.

An initial 7-Year analysis of Core Subject Data (English, Mathematics, Integrated Science and Social Studies) in the WASSCE shows a POSITIVE TREND in student performance benchmarked against the A1-C6 tertiary qualification.

Interventions Undertaken

The Ghana Education Service believe that the following interventions has caused the significant improvement in the results of the Free SHS learners.

1.Maths and Science training for teachers

2. Core Textbooks for all students

3. Core Subject teacher training digitized and disseminated to all schools.

4. Remedial packages delivered to all students

5. Support for low performing schools

and lastly General Free SHS Interventions and

Increased contact hours for learners.

GES was quick to add the general challenges faced by Free SHS.

1. Perception of ‘leaked’ papers destabilizes students

2. The persistence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the initial challenges when schools first reopened.