Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, the former Education Minister has finally come clean on the actual beneficiaries of the Free SHS policy.
According to Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, only 3.5 million students have benefited from the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) policy since its commencement.
He added that the 5.7million figure was an error and takes full responsibility for that.
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, speaking on JoyNews’ AM Show on Friday, February 14, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum stated, “The Free SHS policy has transformed education in Ghana, allowing millions of students to pursue their dreams without the worry of school fees,”
“There was an error in the figures previously mentioned, and I take full responsibility for that. The correct number of beneficiaries stands at 3.5 million,”
He further touted the Free SHS policy for changing Ghana education, saying, “Free SHS has changed the trajectory of education in Ghana, and we must do everything possible to ensure its continuous improvement.”
Meanwhile, Haruna Iddrisu, Minister of Education has already stated the 5.1 million Free SHS beneficiaries quoted by the former Akufo-Addo government is misleading.
According to Haruna Iddrisu, his research suggests that around 3.9 million students have benefited from the programme.
