Professor Martin Oteng Ababio, a senior lecturer at the University of Ghana, has raised concerns about the unintended consequences of the government’s Free Senior High School (Free SHS) policy, arguing that the programme, while increasing access to education, has significantly compromised the quality of education in Ghana.
The lecturer pointed to the growing challenges within the tertiary education sector, which he said have been exacerbated by the policy’s lack of corresponding investment in infrastructure to accommodate the surge in student enrollment.
Speaking to the media during a campaign outreach event organised by lecturers of the University of Ghana to raise awareness about the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) 2024 manifesto, Prof. Ababio reflected on the Free SHS policy’s dual impact.
While he acknowledged the positive aspects of the policy in making secondary education accessible to a broader section of Ghanaian youth, he also highlighted that the initiative has strained the country’s higher education system to a breaking point.
Prof. Ababio said though the policy has succeeded in its aim to boost enrollment, it has inadvertently created a crisis in the quality of education due to the government’s failure to adequately invest in university infrastructure.
His criticisms focused on the severe overcrowding in universities across the country, like the University of Ghana, where the student population has swelled dramatically in recent years, which he attributed to the influx of Free SHS graduates.
According to the senior lecturer, this sudden surge in numbers has not been met with a corresponding increase in resources.
“The free SHS has helped. But it has spelt the doom of the whole educational system. The number of students that are getting into the university has increased tremendously. Lectures have not increased. The lecture halls have not increased. The residential halls have not increased.
“So we are compromising, and I am a lecturer, we are compromising quality for quantity. In a sense today, if you come to Legon, you enter a lecture hall to find 600, 800 students in one room. That makes it very difficult to reach out to each and every one. How many essays can you mark a day? And how many essays can you give to a student?”
