The Ghana Education Service (GES), under the leadership of Director-General Professor Ernest Kofi Davis, is presently collaborating with private school associations to explore the utilisation of their facilities in support of the Free Senior High School (FSHS) programme.
The Director-General met with executives of the Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS) and the Conference of Heads of Private Second-Cycle Schools (CHOPSS) to discuss potential collaboration.
He was accompanied by Prof. Davis and his deputies, Prof. Smile Dzisi and Dr. Munawaru Issahaque.
The engagement authorities explained is to help ease congestion in public senior high schools and gradually phase out the double-track system, which was introduced to accommodate rising enrolment under the Free SHS policy.
Representatives from GNAPS and CHOPSS have assured the GES of their preparedness and interest in the proposal.
According to them, they are ready to work with GES to profile eligible private schools for student placement under the Free SHS programme.
Also present at the meeting was the National Coordinator of the Free SHS Secretariat, Benita Sena Okitey Duah, who reaffirmed the government’s commitment to ensuring equitable access to quality secondary education across Ghana.
Background
Private secondary schools are expected to receive over 150,000 students as part of the free Senior High School policy.
As part of the initiative, students will be assigned to both day and boarding schools among the over 168 currently in operation.
Deputy Education Minister Dr Clement Apaak in March this year confirmed that one hundred and fifty thousand (150,000) students will be sent to private schools through the Centralised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS).
He disclosed this on the floor of Parliament on Monday, March 24, 2025.
The move, he said, forms part of efforts by the government in addressing the “obnoxious double-track system”.
According to him, 413 secondary and TVET institutions are still practising the double-track system.
“As the Minister for Education has already announced, we anticipate that about one hundred and fifty thousand students will be channelled into the private schools system. Because the private schools will be included in the CSSPS. So we believe that with the combination of strategies, including adding infrastructure and funding some of the students to the private schools, we should be able to bring normalcy to our school system.
“The previous president had indicated in the wake of heated national debates that the double-track system would be ended before the end of his first term. Mr Speaker, when he failed to fulfil that promise, he then went on to say that by the beginning of his second term, the double-track system would have been ended,” Dr Apaak stated.
“Consequently, the NDC government under John Dramani Mahama will bring an end to this obnoxious double-track system by a combination of strategies. One is to complete the uncompleted structures dotted on campuses of our secondary schools.
“This can be achieved because the president, who is thoughtful and understands the plights of the common Ghanaian, has done the needful by decapping GETFund. So GETFund will now be in the position to do what, by law, it is established to do. Two, we are also going to bring the private schools to participate in the delivery of the policy.” Dr Apaak added.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
