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The newly appointed Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, has called for a comprehensive validation of data regarding the beneficiaries of Ghana’s Free Senior High School (Free SHS) programme.
Speaking during his first official visit to the Ministry on January 22, 2025, following his swearing-in by President John Dramani Mahama, Iddrisu emphasized the need for accurate statistics to inform policy reforms and discussions.
“One of the very first major issues the country must interrogate is the statistical validity of how many Ghanaians have benefited from Free Senior High School,” he stated.
The Minister highlighted inconsistencies in reported figures. While public records, including parliamentary reports, place the number of Free SHS beneficiaries at 5.1 million, Iddrisu’s research estimates the figure at around 3.9 million students.
“I am not saying mine is right, but 5.1 million was misleading because I have looked at the numbers from 2017 to 2023, and I am convinced that the number of students who have benefited from the Free SHS policy stands at not more than 3.9 million. But I need a validation of that data to begin with,” he explained.
Iddrisu clarified that his goal is not to discredit existing records but to establish a credible baseline for future policy decisions. He underscored the importance of data integrity as Ghana seeks to strengthen its education sector.
The Minister also announced plans to convene a National Education Conference aimed at evaluating the state of education in Ghana and identifying actionable reforms. The validation of Free SHS data, he noted, would be a crucial foundation for these discussions.
This move signals Haruna Iddrisu’s commitment to evidence-based policymaking and his focus on ensuring that reforms in the education sector are grounded in reliable data.
