Educate Africa Institute, an education policy think tank, has said the year 2017 was not appropriate for the implementation of the government’s flagship education programme, Free Senior High School (Free SHS).

According to the institute, the timing for the implementation was the reason the laudable policy is facing some teething problems.

The Executive Director of the institute, Mr William Boadi, made these remarks while reacting to the issue of a toilet facility being turned into a dormitory for some students of Ghana Senior High School (GHANASCO) at Tamale in the Northern Region.

Mr Boadi explained that the implementation should have been stayed by the government even though it was a major campaign promise.

He said the government should have waited until 2020 to implement the policy but because of votes it hastily implemented the programme without the accompanying facilities in the secondary schools.

He said by so doing the government would have finished with the construction of additional spaces for accommodating the large numbers of students in the various secondary schools across the country.

Mr Boadi raised issues with the implementation of the policy in an interview on the Ghana Yensom morning show hosted by Odehyeeba Kofi Essuman on Accra 100.5 FM on Monday, April 17, 2023. 

There are over one million students admitted into senior secondary schools as part of the implementation of the Free SHS programme. 

Mr Boadi accused Mr Michael Nsowah, a former Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES) of saying the NPP is billed to get over one million votes with the implementation of the Free SHS.

He said the implementation and not the programme itself is problematic.

''I have always held the view that Free SHS is the best programme introduced by the government," he stated.     

 He called for the need for Ghana to draw the line between a school and education.

According to him, a school is just a building and an education is acquiring knowledge.

"It is the reason we are unable to fashion out policies to ensure the growth of education in the country.

"It is only in Ghana that people are made Ministers of Education because they spent a lot on the campaign of the sitting president and not their aptitude to bring a change to the sector," he argued. 

To cap it all, he said people who do not know anything about education development are being made Director-General of Ghana Education Service.