Musician and a member of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwame Asare Obeng popularly known as A-Plus, has raised some pertinent concerns about the rollout of the government’s flagship Free Senior Secondary School programme.
According to him, it does not make economic sense for students who fall short of the pass mark to gain admission into Senior High Schools to be offered admissions under the Free SHS.
He contested that students who did not make their grades should not be offered admission into SHS under the Programme.
He explained that the Free SHS programme is a form of scholarship, adding that, scholarships are offered to brilliant but needy students.
“Everywhere in the world, scholarships are offered to needy but brilliant students and not everybody as being done with the Free SHS programme,” A-Plus argued.
“There must be a cut-off point to encourage the students at the basic level to learn,” he said.
Kwame A-Plus further asserted that the Free SHS is a scholarship and should be enjoyed by all Basic Education Certificate Examination graduates but only intelligent students.
According to him, the government is facing serious financial difficulties arising out of the expenditure on blocked head BECE graduates who are admitted as part of Free SHS.
He maintained that these funds can be channeled to the building of boarding facilities, classrooms and laboratories for Senior High Schools among others.
He explained that being selective in the admission to SHS will help decongest the Senior High Schools and also help eradicate the double-track system.
“By so doing, students having aggregate ranging from 31 – 54 can be given skills training to enable them to gain employable skills,” he suggested.
He said the programme as its stand is offering admission to students who do not deserve to be in Senior Secondary School.
“It is the reason the programme is suffering leading to the unending double track and gold track, green track among others,” he mocked.
Kwame A-Plus, said these in a live video on Facebook over the weekend.
