Government to present Free SHS Bill to Parliament – Majority leader

The Majority Leader of Ghana’s Parliament, Mr. Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin has hinted that the Nana Addo led government is set to present the Free Senior High School (SHS) Bill to Parliament.

The move seems to be geared towards cementing the implementation of the FSHS policy  which is one of several flagship initiatives by the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government.

But according to Mr. Afenyo-Markin, the proposed bill is aimed to regulating the policy and ensuring its sustainability.

This announcement comes at a time the leadership of the largest opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and Civil Society organizations (CSOs)  like IMANI Ghana, EfuWatch among a host of others are calling for a review of the FSHS program.

For instance some stakeholders in the educational sector, including EduWatch, have suggested that parents who opt for boarding facilities should cover the associated fees.

EduWatch again has recommended the policy should be targeted at children from poor households, using data from the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme as a reference point.

Addressing members of the Parliamentary Press Corps (PPC) on Tuesday, 11th June 2024 at a Leaders’ Media Briefing, the Majority Leader, and Member of Parliament for Effutu Constituency asserted that the bill seeks to make the policy more effective and sustainable, aligning with the aspirations outlined in Chapter 5 of the 1992 Republican Constitution of Ghana.

The Effutu lawmaker argued that the constitution provision as it is in its current form alone does not make these provisions enforceable by law.

The government through this bill aims to make them justifiable and enforceable through legislation, he added.

“I’m also able to report that the Education Minister will present the Free SHS Bill to Parliament. The chapter five of the Constitution provides some aspirational indicatives. Those are not justiciable, but once by a policy of the government, an aspiration as a message by the constitution is put into action then to make it justiciable, you enact.

In other words, there are provisions in the constitution that you cannot enforce, you cannot claim the right to those provisions. The fact that they are there does not mean that you can apply to the court to enforce those rights, they are aspirational” he stressed.

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