Finance Minister Mohammed Amin Adam has disclosed that since its implementation, the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy has received GH¢9.9 billion in funding, and provides educational access to over 5.7 million students who may not have had the opportunity otherwise.
According to him, in March 2017, the government allocated GH¢400 million to implement Free SHS with the funding coming from oil resources.
The oil proceeds, he said, have continued to fund the programme because President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo believes every Ghanaian child must benefit from this natural resource.
Mohammed Amin disclosed these in his 2024 Mid-Year Budget review presentation on Tuesday, July 23.
He stressed that to further empower youth, the government has invested in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), enrolling 168,000 students for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Ten STEM schools and centers, he said, are currently under construction while 900,000 tablets have been distributed to secondary school students.
“Quality education has been given considerable focus. The performance of students at WASSCE in 2023 is the best since 2015,” the Minister reported.
Amin Adam emphasized the significant strides that have been made in Ghana’s education sector and social support programs.
Citing education as a crucial driver of social and economic development, he detailed initiatives that have transformed the educational landscape over the past eight years.
According to him, there is empirical evidence that education is the great leveler that improves opportunities for any child along the social stratification.
He reinforced the government’s commitment to education, quoting UNICEF’s recognition of education as a fundamental right that fosters democracy, peace, and economic growth.
The government, he said, has disbursed GH¢38 million as a Capitation Grant for public basic school pupils in the first half of 2024.
“The capitation grant has increased from GH¢5.00 in 2016 to GH¢15.00 in 2024,” The Finance Minister said and stressed the support provided to vulnerable students in public special schools through feeding grants.
He explained that the Ghana School Feeding Programme, initiated in 2006/2007, has expanded from 1,950 beneficiaries to over 4 million as of June 2024 and that in just one year, the program has added more than 200,000 children.
He stated that an amount of over GH¢662 million was paid to caterers as of June 2024 and underscored the employment generated for over 34,000 caterers and cooks, predominantly women, and the boost it has provided to local farmers and the economy.