The Fourth Estate an online media organization has exposed Gabby Otchere Darko’s Asaase Radio over Free SHS enrollment figure.
According to Asaase Radio, an Accra-based station, nearly 6 million students had benefitted from the Free Senior High School program.
This claim was made on Asaase Radio X account on December 17, 2024.
The claim by Asaase Radio has been reiterated by many NPP politicians and institutions in the past months including the National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Stephen Ntim who claimed that 5.7 million students had benefitted from Free SHS since 2017.
President Akufo Addo at the launch of the Smart Schools project on March 25 also claimed 5.1 million children have benefitted from the Free SHS programme since it was instituted in September 2017.
The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, and Dr Mahamudu Bawumia also repeated that the Free SHS program has benefitted 5.7 million children.
However, the Ministry of Finance has dismissed these claims, according to them the total beneficiaries of the Free SHS policy from 2017 to 2024 are 3,135,754 and not nearly 6 million students as claimed by Asaase Radio and NPP bigwigs.
