FREE SHS SCAM EXPOSED: CHASS Plans Closing Down Akufu Addo’s FREE SHS For Lack of Funds

The Conference of Assisted Senior High Schools (CHASS) is reportedly planning to close down public Senior High Schools (SHS) across the country because the Akufo Addo administration has refused to release requisite funds for the running of these schools.

Accra-Based UTV is reporting that the President of CHASS, Ms. Cecilia Kwakye Cofie has said that the Akufo Addo government owes school authorities subsidy arrears for three terms.

According to Ms. Cofie, only 20% of funds budgeted for the Free SHS policy have been released so far, saying it was not good enough.

The planned closure is coming in the heels of the failure of these schools to be reopened and students’ vacation extended by one more month.

The Ghana Education Service (GES) about two weeks ago had claimed that it was rescheduling the reopening of schools for SHS Form 3 students to May 5, 2021, saying the move was necessitated after management considered a proposal from CHASS to give the SHS 3 students an uninterrupted instruction period till they write their final examination.

“The current arrangement, therefore, means that when the final year students report on 5th May 2021, they will be in school until they write their WASSCE. Management of GES, therefore, considers this as a better option where the students will not break their instruction period and have their full 1,080 hours needed prior to the final examination,” explains the GES.

This is not the first time the GES is rescheduling the reopening of school for SHS students. Last month, it postponed the reopening for SHS for new form 1 students from March 18 through to March 21.

This also means that the government has subtly tweaked the school arrangement one more time after it had controversially started the “double track” system to accommodate the avalanche of new students taking advantage of its free SHS policy.

The confusion currently dogging senior high schools has been zeroed down by critics to a lack of commitment of the Akufo Addo administration to its key policy.

Free SHS is the main policy of the Akufo Addo administration, however, the problems that have faced the policy in the past four years left critics no choice but to mark the government down for failing to deliver on its single most important policy.