The government is preparing to present the Free Senior High School (SHS) Bill to Parliament.

This is aimed at regulating and ensuring the sustainability of the Free SHS policy amidst growing concerns of potential cancellation by future administrations and the challenges currently facing the programme.

Stakeholders in the educational sector, including EduWatch, have voiced their opinions on the policy.

They suggested that parents who choose boarding facilities for their children should bear the associated costs. Additionally, EduWatch recommended that the policy be targeted at children from poor households, utilising data from the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme to identify eligible beneficiaries.

During a Leaders’ Media Briefing on Tuesday, 11 June 2024, the Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, provided further details on the bill. 

He emphasised that the legislation seeks to enhance the policy's effectiveness and sustainability, aligning with the aspirations set forth in Chapter 5 of the Constitution.

“I’m also able to report that the Education Minister will present the Free SHS Bill to Parliament. The chapter five of the Constitution provides some aspirational indicatives. 

“Those are not justiciable, but once by a policy of the government, an aspiration as a message by the constitution is put into action then to make it justiciable, you enact,” Mr. Afenyo-Markin explained.

He added: “In other words, there are provisions in the constitution that you cannot enforce, you cannot claim the right to those provisions. The fact that they are there does not mean that you can apply to the court to enforce those rights, they are aspirational,” he added.