A former Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Dr. Charles Aheto-Tsegah, has expressed grave concerns about the management of the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy.
Despite its success in improving access to education, Dr. Aheto-Tsegah believes that poor management practices in schools are undermining the policy’s overall success.
Speaking on Channel One TV, Dr. Aheto-Tsegah criticized the limited oversight headmasters have over key aspects of school administration, citing meal management and replacement of learning materials as examples.
He emphasized that these restrictions have created inefficiencies and negatively impacted the policy’s success.
The former GES Director-General attributed the challenges facing the Free SHS policy to the erosion of headmasters’ authority.
“Once the management of secondary schools was taken away from the headmasters… then we undermined the authority of the headmaster,” he said.
Dr. Aheto-Tsegah further explained that headmasters are not allowed to make key decisions, including directing meal preparations, deciding on meal options, or ensuring regular replacements for torn books. “You’re affecting them,” he said. “If you refuse to allow them the chance to literally have control over the teachers… You have taken a big chunk of the whole administrative thing from them.”
Dr. Aheto-Tsegah called for a thorough review of the policy’s implementation framework to empower school authorities and address the pressing challenges threatening the sustainability of Free SHS.