The Executive Director of Child Rights International, Bright Appiah has said that the free Senior High School (Free SHS) programme is not affecting the economy.
He said that because the policy is not being managed well, a lot of people think it is affecting the economy.
Speaking on the New Day show with Roland Walker on TV3 Wednesday, June 21, he said “If we implement the free SHS very well, we will have gains in building a very strong economy. Probably because we are not managing the policy very well, we think that it is affecting the economy of this country.”
“We need to understand the foundation of the policy and decide what to do to strengthen it or what do we do to expand it. But if you look at what is happening now the government is not clear on what they want to do with our social intervention,” he added.
He further said “so free SHS is very unique. Initially, I was part of the group that said that we should start with targeting because in implementing such a programme you need to understand the numbers you are going to deal with so that you can do your projection properly.n If you don’t know the numbers or the dynamics that exist and the numbers increase it means your budget allocation will be increasing.
“So we thought that there would be a need for us to have the targeting system but the government explained that there are people who pay taxes, there are people who contribute to the development of this country but there had never been any policy that is targeting those people not because they can’t provide.”
If we implement the free SHS very well, we will have gains in building a very strong economy. Probably because we are not managing the policy very well, we think that it is affecting the economy of this country – Bright Appiah, Child Rights International #TV3NewDay pic.twitter.com/bYLLyAyTll
— #TV3GH (@tv3_ghana) June 21, 2023