An educational civil society organisation called African Education Watch conducted a recent study that revealed a large financial gap between the government’s and parents’ payments for the free Senior High School (SHS) scheme.
The results showed that the government spent, on average, GHS 1,147 per student for boarding schools and GHS 1,107 per student for day students. On the other hand, it was discovered that parents were spending GHS 2,477 on boarding school prospectuses for their children. Moreover, during the 2021–2022 school year, they spent an additional GHS 4,000 on personal goods, including sanitary pads, detergents, and perfume.
Divine Kpe, Senior Programmes Officer of African Education Watch, presented these results at an Accra conference on school funding. The study, “The Financial Burden of the Free SHS Policy and Implications for Equitable Access to Education,” clarified the difficulties parents confront in terms of money.