Thomas Musah, the general secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), has requested a stakeholder meeting to talk about how parents may support the free senior high school (SHS) project.
He stated that, in light of current systemic issues, it was important to take into account parents' feedback in order to effectively administer the project.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra, Mr. Musah discussed a wide variety of topics and asserted that the government's subsidy for free SHS had been in arrears for more than three years.
We all support and believe that the free SHS policy is the best course of action; however, execution is a challenge.
The capitation award for basic education has been in arrears for more than two years as of this writing because of cash flow issues, Mr. Musah said.
Relevance
The general secretary stated that each significant intervention or initiative needed to be evaluated for ways to improve it. With regard to the free SHS, the general feeling was that the government needed to permit parents to contribute to the system.
He said, "Government, you cannot do it all alone; you can't," adding that because the program had problems, it was only right that the government turned to the populace for advice on how to fix them.
Mr. Musah claimed that because parents, former students, and other stakeholders were willing to assist, inviting them to the program would be crucial to its success.
"All hands must be on deck," he claimed, in order to create the nation.
In his budget statement to Parliament for 2023, Mr. Musah said that the government's goal was in accordance with the request for the review.
Savings
The general secretary also asserted that some of the government's major schemes cost between GH4 billion and GH6 billion, meaning that assessing them will enable the government to make some savings.
"Flagship programs," he continued, "should be examined immediately, as specified in the budget, which the administration has agreed to review. If we can suspend them, let's suspend them; if we can cancel them, let's cancel them so that we can cut our cloth according to our size.
Almost every government initiative is now behind schedule owing to a shortage of funding, according to Mr. Musah, who named the National Health Insurance Scheme and the Ghana Educational Trust Fund as two examples of entities that are burdened.
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