The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has stated the government’s flagship Free SHS Senior High School (SHS) programme is poorly targeted.
According to Fund, the Free SHS programme, which covers the full cost of secondary education, has helped increase enrollment but has been poorly targeted.
This is contained in the latest IMF country report on Ghana.
The Fund disclosed that Ghana spends close to 4% of its GDP on education with good results in terms of enrollment but poor learning outcomes.
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The IMF identified key areas that it said need improvement in education financing and these include strengthening primary education resources, better teacher training, and stronger performance-based funding practices.
The Free SHS programme has enjoyed a budgetary allocation of more than GH¢11.3 billion since 2019.
In the 2023 budget government demonstrated its commitment stating that the implementation of the Free SHS Programme remained unwavering.
It also mentioned that the “total number of beneficiaries currently stands at 1.3 million students for the 2021/22 academic year” and this year, the “government will continue with the implementation of the Programme and continue to facilitate access to various educational items.”