When it comes to secondary education in Ghana and the battle for ownership of free SHS, the NPP and NDC have a “myopic mindset,” especially about the long-term implications of the implementation of free SHS, because all we see and hear from both parties fails to look beyond an increase in enrolment.
Free SHS is just an arc on a bigger circle filled with effects and outcomes. The past 8 years of Free SHS have been about the numbers enrolled and graduating, and that ends it. Increase in unemployment for persons in this category after school. Data available on Free SHS points to about 2.5 million students benefiting from the free SHS policy from the 2017/18 to 2022/23 academic year. The question is, and so what?
The government failed to consider the creation of jobs that these graduates can be considered for after school while they wait for their enrolment into tertiary institutions. To appreciate the issues, keep reading this post, “NPP and NDC’s Free SHS “myopic mindset” and graduate unemployment ” till the end.
Free SHS and the spillover effect we have failed to tackle as a nation
We should all know that when we expand access to secondary education, we have to look at the spillover effect, or multiplier effect, of the policy on several sectors of the economy when these go to school, are in school, and when the students finally graduate. This way, we can plan strategically to deal with the likely negative effects of the policy and also tap into the opportunities it offers us as a nation.
We saw the effect of the increased enrolment when the first batch graduated and had to enrol in tertiary institutions. It technically shrank our tertiary education’s capacity because we were not ready for the spillovers. We were not ready for the numbers in terms of admissions.
We saw the concerns regarding the inadequacy of furniture, school strictures, and other facilities in many schools, which also served as a blindfold for the politically skewed government.
Even in our SHSs, we have faced challenges we have not confidently solved. For instance, accommodations issues as well as poor nutrition for learners linger eight years after the implementation of Free SHS. Each time it raises its ugly head, we shamelessly fight it like a political war.
Free SHS and unemployed youth are positively correlated because more graduates with SHS certificates who are yet to go back to school need jobs that match their certificates, but these jobs are not available.
The government of Ghana hardly creates jobs with such persons in mind because it is already overburdened with graduate unemployment with regards to diploma, degree, and postgraduate degree holders.
As a nation, if we think beyond free SHS enrolment and see the policy as one that is cyclical in nature, we will be able to think of finding the missing arcs of the circle rather than focussing on just one of the several arcs that make up the circle.
After free SHS, all things held constant, a graduate may enter tertiary institutions, search for a job, or study for a re-sit.
The two latter students, thus those searching for jobs and those studying for a re-sit, often need either full-time or part-time jobs to survive while waiting for an opportunity to gain admission and also not to become a burden for their parents.
Our major question demanding answers as a nation is:
Do we have jobs to engage free SHS graduates, and do we create them?
The answer is no, and 99% of the time, it is only private institutions that offer jobs for such students.
SHS graduates are home after school with no jobs. Even getting a job as a shop attendant is not easy. A job as waiter or a waitress in private businesses in the tourism sector is hard to get just as in private schools where such graduates serve as pupil teachers.
How many times in the last 8 years have you seen government institutions recruiting SHS graduates? Well, I have yet to see any apart from the traditional recruitment into the security services, which has become a “pay bribe or no recruitment” scam in this country being used to enrich some people close to the corridors of power in Ghana.
Where the government offers jobs in the security services, it is not enough since many more graduates apply for these jobs and never get anywhere.
Free SHS is the reason for the high unemployment rate in Ghana. This conclusion by the Deputy Majority Leader is not entirely true because not all unemployed graduates who are currently unemployed are SHS graduates.
However, this problem needs to be solved with novel ideas. Ghana seems to have gotten stuck with solutions that are not worth it and never-out-of the box ideas.
Our senior high schools should not be only about learning grammar and big books. It should not be the case that students who want to learn science focus on only science subjects, nor should general arts students focus on arts courses like economics and geography.
Every student who enters SHS in Ghana must first come out as a graduate with a skill that can land a job after school.
The SHS graduate must acquire some useful modern hands-on training. Secondary education must inculcate skills training for all students who will have the option of learning one trade or another.
Does that above, in your estimation, make the NPP and NDC’s Free SHS “myopic mindset” and graduate unemployment real to you?
Novel Job Ideas For Policy Makers and Governments To Deal With Job Issues
If Ghana wants to solve the unemployment problem in the next few years, we need to take the following recommendations seriously as far as our free secondary school education is concerned.
Digital Economy Jobs Training:
We must train SHS graduates (while they are in school) in digital skills like coding, graphic design, and social media management, among others. Can you imagine a program in secondary school that trains students on how to create and build websites, blogs, and search engine optimisations for three years? Our students do not need to get to the university to start learning the basics and building a solid foundation.
Such a program could be called the “Digital Innovators Program (DIP), with a focus on web development, blogging, and SEO mastery for secondary school students over a three-year period, which will be followed by a WASSCE examination.
This example is just one of the hundreds of job focused skills and courses that can be introduced at the SHS level.
Green Economy Jobs
Give high-level consideration to green economy jobs for SHS students by engaging SHS graduates in environmental conservation, sustainable agriculture, and renewable energy programs.
Creative industry jobs
As a nation, we need to take the creative industry seriously to provide creative industry jobs by supporting SHS graduates in creative fields like art, music, and fashion.
Community Health Worker Program
We should be able to birth a Community Health Worker Program that trains SHS graduates as community health workers as part of their study. This way they can serve the nation as community health workers after school.
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Teacher assistant program
Our public basic schools have one teacher handling a class, befitting three teachers in many schools. In private schools, such things do not exist.
Where the numbers are huge in private schools, the class teacher has a teaching assistant who may perform functions such as marking registers, marking assignments, and performing other functions that will provide the main teacher with the needed support.
If, as a country, we provide value to our SHS students and teach them the right stuff, these graduates can serve as teaching assistants in our public basic schools.
A teacher assistant program will surely be a good option to employ SHS graduates as teacher assistants after their studies.
Conclusion:
These solutions and strategies can help address the challenges of free SHS and provide SHS graduates with viable job opportunities.
While we have not seen the content of the new free SHS policy, there seems to be some effort to change the free SHS narrative through the programs and subjects studied. However, implementation has been the enemy of good ideas in Ghana to date. This makes it difficult to tell what will become of the new policy.
If we do not deal with the cyclical challenges Free SHS will create and has started creating for this nation, it will become impossible to deal with.
What is your take on the “NPP and NDC’s Free SHS “myopic mindset” and graduate unemployment” that you have just read?
This Write Up Is An Opinion From Writer:
Wisdom Hammond
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