Child Rights International (CRI) has called on the government to ensure that all intended reviews made with regards to the Free Senior High School (SHS) do not change any of its core mandates, philosophy, or the idea of universal reach irrespective of geographical location or status.
This was contained in a statement issued by the Executive Director of CRI, Mr. Bright Appiah, in Accra yesterday.
He said the programme has so far benefited 1.6 million students, irrespective of their geographical location, status, sex, or race.
“The initiative is a laudable one which has had far reaching socio-economic benefits and impact, especially within rural areas and communities in the country where financial constraints, accessibility and other factors prevented students from accessing secondary education,” he said.
Mr Appiah said recent statements by government officials had led CRI to believe thatthere were plans underway to review some social intervention policy programmes, including the Free SHS programme.
“As a child centred organisation, our first priority is to ensure that government, policy makers and stakeholders are held accountable to the best interest of children whenever decisions are being taken on matters that have a direct or indirect impact on them. In this instance, both cases are applicable,” he said.
He said the education sector had experienced many policy changes over the past 10 years, rendering it unstable, therefore, Ghanaians were not new to constant upheavals and changes within the educational sector in the country.
However, Mr Appiah said this had resulted in several inconsistencies in the educational sector, “In policy formulation one of the key principles is that when citizens are settled in the application of a policy, change to the policy disturbs its outcomes on the environment, teachers, students and parents”.
“There are numerous examples, such as the 34cars and then a change to the 4-3, and the senior high school period policy change, all happening within a five-year space,” he said.
He said in recent years, students and parents have had to adjust to the double-track system, the introduction of the semester cycle and then its reversal in schools.
Mr Appiah said the development of a new curriculum that has not been fully integrated into the system with complaints of the lack of teaching material to support this new curriculum. The changes have been many and the impact profound.
He was hopeful that the reviews of the programme would seek to address and rectify administrative issues, delaying the provision of services within the programme rather than altering the idea, philosophy, and core mandate.