Education Forum receives over 20,000 responses on Free SHS

The National Education Forum Planning Committee has received 20,050 responses on the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) policy through an online platform.

In addition, the committee also received over 2,000 online submissions and 200 paper submissions on various aspects of the educational system.

The Chairman of the National Education Forum Planning Committee, Professor George Oduro, said this at a stakeholder validation conference in Accra yesterday.

The eight-member committee was tasked by President John Mahama to plan the forum to review the education system in pursuit of his pre-election promise of holding a national stakeholders’ forum to discuss ways to sustainably improve the education system at all levels.

Since its inauguration, the committee has held stakeholder engagements with key publics, including students, parents, teachers, researchers, civil society organisations, development partners, religious bodies, political parties, chiefs and the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education, among others.

Agenda

Prof. Oduro said the committee’s agenda included developing a comprehensive report detailing findings and recommendations of the review, drafting a national education policy framework and proposing an action plan for implementation of the recommendations.

He said the interactions occured through a hybrid meeting approach — virtual and in-person meetings, inputs from identified citizens, interrogation of the 2018-2030 Strategic Plan, contents of previous education review documents, the 2024 Manifestos of the two key political parties — the National Democratic Congress, (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), as well as guidance from the Vice-President, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, and the Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu.

The committee formulated the theme: Transforming education for a sustainable future".

He said five key thematic areas were also developed — infrastructure, quality education provision, education financing, regulatory systems, accountability and governance and research evidence for decision-making to guide their discourses. 

Engagements

The engagements commenced with the launch of the National Education Forum, followed by two days of five parallel breakout sessions of national-level engagements where issues on the five pillars of the theme were interrogated. Seven parallel zonal stakeholders’ engagements were later held in Ho, Accra, Cape Coast, Kumasi, Sunyani, Tamale, and Bolgatanga from February 19 to 26, 2025.

There were also targeted engagements with the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), teacher unions, religious bodies, senior editors on education desks of media houses and some senior citizens who have made some great impact on education.

Prof. Oduro further said the issue that gained much traction was the Free SHS policy.

He said there would be a validation of the conference to offer an opportunity for "you to review, validate and provide feedback on the findings and recommendations”. 

Emerging issues

A member of the committee, Kofi Asare, said that the issue that gained much traction was the free senior high school programme of which respondents expressed concern over the lack of a cut-off grade point, indiscipline in schools and the double track system.

"Because we know that not all the 200 or so recommendations can be done within two years, we will consider prioritising the issues on short, medium and long terms," he explained.