Story: News Desk
The Ghana National Council of Private Schools (GNACOPS) has disclosed that 25,000 students have so far been placed in private Senior High Schools across the country under the government’s pilot phase of integrating private schools into the Free SHS programme.
According to the Executive Director of GNACOPS, Obenfo Nana Kwasi Gyetuah, a total of 70 private schools across all 16 regions of Ghana have been included in the initiative. Collectively, these schools declared 44,000 vacancies to support the pilot programme.
“We have integrated 70 private schools across the 16 regions in Ghana, and in totality, the vacancy that has been declared is 44,000,” he said on Citi Eyewitness News on Thursday, October 16.
“But as we speak now, government has been able to place 25,000 students in these schools. We are yet to complete the other schools for them to have the vacancies that they have declared,” he added.
The initiative is part of the government’s broader plan to ease congestion in public schools and phase out the double-track system. Under the pilot, government is providing GH₵994 per student annually to support selected private day schools participating in the programme.
The financial arrangement was formalised through a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Ministry of Education and the Conference of Heads of Private Second Cycle Schools. Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu explained that the funding was aimed at ensuring equitable access to quality education across both public and private institutions.
The GH₵994 allocation covers tuition for day students placed in the participating private schools. However, parents who wish to have their wards enrolled as boarders will be required to pay the difference between the government’s contribution and the school’s boarding fees.
President of the Conference of Heads of Private Second Cycle Schools, I.K. Mensah, welcomed the initiative and noted that while the pilot currently focuses on day students, discussionswere ongoing to expand and potentially adjust the funding in future phases.
The full integration of private schools into the Free SHS programme is expected to enhance access to secondary education, reduce infrastructure pressure on public schools, and promote stronger public-private collaboration within Ghana’s education sector.
