Gov’t allocates GH¢80 million for Free SHS furniture – Dr Matthew Opoku-Prempeh

• Posted on November 8, 2017
• by Ellsamwise King
• Comment

The Minister of Education, Dr Matthew Opoku-Prempeh has revealed that government has allocated GHC80 million to resolve the acute furniture shortage in some Senior High Schools across the country due to the high numbers recorded upon rolling out of the Free SHS program.

According to the Minister, the government is not blind to the challenges facing the program and is committed to resolving the impediments in order to make the program successful.

However, he called on Ghanaians not to be misled into seeing the Free SHS program as an antidote to the problems that have plagued the country’s educational system over the years.

“We are not oblivious to the challenges and stress this free SHS is bringing. This is a government that acknowledges that and we will deal with it. Some parts of this country have enjoyed free secondary education. Have all access problems in those areas been solved? For 50 years, people have enjoyed partial free scholarship in the Northern Region. Have we finished building schools in that part of the country? Have we finished supplying furniture in that part of the country? Let’s not feel and be led to believe that the scholarship will necessarily solve every problem. The scholarship is about solving the problem of access, financial access,” the Minister said.

He also said the government has put in place measures to address any challenge that reaches the Ministry of Education.

“There are emergency interventions that are ongoing in acquiring furniture, bunk beds and things like that when we talk about the Free SHS furniture challenge alone, it is about GHc 80 million [that has been allocated].”

The Minister made these revelations after appearing before Parliament on Tuesday.