The Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare, has added his voice to calls that the country does not need legislation on the Free SHS programme.

Describing it as strange, he said the proposal bill is new and alien to his understanding of how educational systems work in Africa and South America.

He mentioned that Ghana’s proposal is unusual, with a broad law and then another specific one for secondary education.

“No country has that. If you go everywhere in the world, you will find two models. Model one is an education law governing the entire education sector, like South Africa. The second model is an education law that is foundational for all educational rights, with one specific law for basic education, as seen in Kenya, Nigeria, and Zambia.

“So that would make Ghana the first country in the world with a general education law or the British education system but without a law for basic education. We would have no policy for basic education but a law and policy for secondary education. I would be surprised if it goes this way.

My recommendation is that the best way to ensure proper institutional agreements, regulatory arrangements, funding arrangements, and all operational frameworks required for a sustained and free SHS is to develop legislative instruments for the pre-tertiary education law passed in 2020.

Last Friday, Education Minister Dr Yaw Adutwum announced that the Free SHS Bill, 2024, will be presented to the Cabinet for debate this week.

The proposed bill aims to give legal backing to free and compulsory senior high school (SHS) education, along with several other changes to the education system, including the restructuring of junior high school (JHS) and the cancellation of the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) as a prerequisite for SHS admission.

Dr. Adutwum added that another proposal of the bill is the cancellation of the BECE as a precondition for gaining admission to the secondary level, making it instead a tool for school selection purposes.

When passed, certification for completing SHS would become the first level of formal certification any student could obtain in the country, rather than BECE certification, the Education Minister further stated.

“What we need is a law that says there should be free, compulsory universal secondary education. This means the minimum education for Ghanaians should be senior high school and not junior high school,” he said, adding, “It is our responsibility to provide the support for them.”

But Mr. Asare disagrees.

He wants the government to channel its energies into legislating the pre-tertiary law to create better synergy between all levels of education.