Amidst conversations over whether the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would call for scrapping or reviewing the Free SHS programme due to its heavy weight on the Ghanaian budget, the Fund has highlighted the importance of the policy.
In documents available on their website, the IMF describe Ghana’s Free SHS policy as an ‘innovative policy’ which must be protected at all costs.
The Fund says the impending deal with Ghana would boost rather than cut social spending whilst simultaneously encouraging both efficiency and sustainability.
“…the free Senior High School (SHS) is an innovative policy that needs to be protected. In general, IMF-supported programs seek to boost social spending while encouraging both efficiency and sustainability.” the Fund said. “…The IMF-supported program would aim at protecting the vulnerable and creating conditions for an inclusive growth.
As the government engages the IMF on a new deal, critics and commentators have called for the Free SHS program to be targeted as it puts a huge drain on government finances.
Experts have hinted that the IMF might call for trimming of the policy, but former Senior Minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo has vowed that the program will not be touched.
Speaking in Accra Monday, October 10th 2022, Maafo said Free SHS and other similar social intervention programs would not be affected by IMF conditions.
“People have written and I have read in the papers arguing that one of the first things IMF should look at as they admit us into the IMF programme is to cut the Free SHS. Let me tell you here and now, we are negotiating with the IMF and Free SHS will not be touched, we cannot touch it,” he said.
He rejected claims that the IMF might call for a cut to the program’s expenditure whilst admitting that it could use a review.
“If there is any sector that we should not touch the expenditure, that sector is education. Because we are protecting the potential use of our resources in a very efficient and effective manner. So, if you touch education, you are undermining your own development paradigm. So, that is not the area to go when you decide to cut expenditure.
“The IMF itself as an institution is pro-poor, the IMF itself believes in education so how can IMF ask you to cut Free SHS? Don’t you have Free SHS in America, don’t you have Free SHS in Germany, don’t you have it in Europe? Most of the developed world has Free High School, so we are taking the right path towards development and I can assure you that the IMF will not touch the Free SHS,” Osafo-Maafo stated.
Source: theGhanaianVoice.Com