The Free Senior High School (Free SHS) initiative stands as a prominent political campaign commitment in Ghana's 4th Republic, ranking at the forefront of the Akufo-Addo administration's flagship programmes.

Implementation of the programme began in September 2017, targeting first-year students in public Senior High Schools and Technical/Vocational Institutions. Importantly, any Ghanaian child placed in a public second-cycle institution through the Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) during the 2017 school placement process became entitled to benefit from the Free SHS initiative.

By December 6, 2017, the Ministry of Education's Programme Based Budget revealed that a total of 359,023 beneficiaries were enrolled on the programme. These included first-year students in public senior high and technical schools, consisting of 117,926 day students and 241,097 boarding students.

Moving forward to 2024, both President Akufo-Addo and Education Minister Yaw Osei Adutwum have claimed that the total number of beneficiaries has surpassed 5 million. This assertion has sparked controversy and raised questions about the accurate count of beneficiaries since the inception of the programme.

During the launch of the Smart Schools Project on March 25, the president announced the distribution of 1.3 million tablets to students in public Senior High Schools and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions. In this event, he reiterated the total number of beneficiaries under the Free SHS programme, stating that "5.10 million children have so far benefited from the SHS program since it was instituted in September."

But on the same podium, the president and his education minister, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, could not sing from the same hymn book as they gave varying accounts on the total number of beneficiaries under the programme.

In fact, there was a discrepancy between the figures provided by the president and his education minister. Dr. Adutwum, mentioned that "today, some 5.7 million children who are our own children, brothers, and sisters have benefited from the program," a figure approximately 600,000 higher than that stated by the president.

This difference in numbers has raised suspicions regarding the actual total number of beneficiaries under the Free SHS programme, adding to the existing confusion surrounding the reported figures of over 5 million beneficiaries.

Let's approach this analysis by focusing on one of President Akufo-Addo's statements regarding the programme. The president that same day stated that "some 503,000 children entered Senior High School this year, the highest ever enrollment of children into Senior High Schools in a single year in our history."

This raises a significant question: if the current enrollment of 503,000 is indeed the highest in Ghana's history, then how is it possible for over 5 million children to have benefited from the programme in just six academic years?

Unless the government is using a different calculation method, it is difficult to understand how the total beneficiaries in six years could surpass 5 million when the highest enrolment year only reached 503,000.

Even if the highest enrolment of 503,000 occurred in all six academic years, the total number of children covered by the Free SHS programme would not exceed 3.1 million (3,018,000 children).

In fact, according to data from the Free SHS Secretariat, the total number of enrolments (for both Senior High School and Technical and Vocational Education and Training) from 2017 to the 2021/22 academic year was 2,089,430.

Even if we generously use the president's highest enrolment figure of 503,000 for all years, the total number would still not surpass 3.1 million.

So, how did the government arrive at the 5.1 million or 5.7 million total beneficiaries statistics? Could it be that each child was counted multiple times for each year spent under the programme?

The discrepancy between the actual enrolment figures since 2017, which are less than 3.1 million, and the reported total beneficiaries of 5.1 million or 5.7 million demands clarity.

Shouldn't the total beneficiaries under the Free SHS programme just be a simple summation of the various years enrolments? Definitely, government needs to provide a more transparent explanation for these arithmetic discrepancies.

About the writer:

Isaac Kofi Agyei is a Data & Research Analyst/Journalist at JoyNews based in Accra, where he covers mostly finance, economics, banking, and politics across Ghana and West Africa, from detailed analytical reports on all key issues to debt crises to IMF programmes. He also serves as the data and research correspondent for SBM Intelligence, an Africa-focused market/security leader in strategic research, providing actionable analyses of West Africa’s socio-political and economic landscape. With his solid academic background in economics and statistics and additional training from credible institutions such as the UNDP, Afrobarometr, Ghana Statistical Service, and a host of others, Isaac has honed his skills in effective data storytelling, reporting, and analysis.

Isaac Kofi Agyei