The government is set to present the Free Senior High School Bill to Parliament in the coming days to regulate the policy.
This legislative step is aimed at providing a regulatory framework for the policy, which has been a subject of public concern regarding its potential discontinuation by future administrations.
During a Leaders’ Media Briefing, Majority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin revealed the government’s commitment to the enduring implementation of the Free SHS policy.
“I am able to also report that the minister of education will present the Free SHS Bill to parliament,” he stated.
Afenyo-Markin elaborated on the constitutional underpinnings of such a legislative move.
He further clarified that the enactment of the Free SHS Bill would transform the policy from a mere aspiration into a justiciable right, empowering citizens to seek legal recourse if the policy is not implemented.
“As you know, chapter 5 of the constitution provides some aspirational initiatives but those are not justiciable. Once by a policy of government, an aspiration as envisaged by the constitution is put into action. Then to make it justiciable, you enact; in other words, there are provisions in the constitution that you cannot enforce or you cannot claim rights 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 merely aspirational.
“When it gets to a point that a government lifts it up to give life to it, there is the need to enact a law to regulate same and in doing so it would have been given life then the lawyers would say now it has become justiciable in the sense that a court of law can rely on it to make certain orders, enforce certain rights and take certain actions,” he stated
He continued: “…So, this Free SHS Bill, if we consider it as a house, becomes mandatory for the government to implement this. Unless it is repealed, no government would have the right to say I am not going to enforce free SHS because now there is a law and if you fail, the citizens can apply to the court.”
