The Minister for Finance, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, has disclosed that the government has allocated a whopping GH¢3.5 billion for the Free Senior High School policy for 2025.
The information that GH¢3.5b has been allocated for Free SHS has been welcomed by Ghanas and education stakeholders.
Presenting the 2025 budget to Parliament, the Minister disclosed that the government will be uncapping GETFund in order to have more cash to finance the Free SHS policy.
“Mr. Speaker, the overarching concern about free secondary education has been its quality and the absence of a dedicated source of funding. H.E President John Mahama has resolved the funding challenge by uncapping the GETFund. This makes available dedicated funds for the full financing of free secondary education and free tertiary education for Persons with Disability (PWDs).
The Finance Minister added that the Capping and Realignment Act will be amended to uncap Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund).
“Mr. Speaker, this year the budget for the free secondary education programme is GH¢3.5 billion.
“By uncapping the GETFund, we will be making available an additional GH¢4.1 billion to the GETFund, specifically for the financing of the free secondary education programme and other related expenditures.
“Aside from the uncapping of GETFund, we have also absorbed the debt service, made up of interest and principal, from the Daakye bond GETFund contracted.
READ: 2025 Budget: Gov’t increases School Feeding Programme Capitation from Gh¢84m to GH¢145.5m
“Mr. Speaker, we have also allocated an amount of GH¢564.6 million for comprehensive provision of free curricula-based textbooks covering the following: four (4) sets of KG books and workbooks for about 2.8 million learners; ii four (4) sets of primary textbook for 800,000 learners; and iii nine (9) sets of JHS 3 textbooks for 540,000 learners.”
GH¢3.5b allocated for Free SHS means the Free SHS policy will be sustained with more funding to help deal with shortfalls of the policy since it was implement.
The Ghana Education News Editorial Team is a specialized collective of education researchers, journalists, and policy analysts dedicated to providing high-fidelity reporting on the Ghanaian academic landscape. Serving as a primary bridge between governing bodies—including the Ghana Education Service (GES) and WAEC—and the public, the team leverages over a decade of combined experience to serve students, parents, and educators nationwide.
Lead Architect & Editor-in-Chief
The team is led by Wisdom Kojo Eli Hammond, a distinguished Ghanaian Edu-Tech Entrepreneur, AI Solutions Developer, and Product Architect with over 25 years of cross-disciplinary experience in education, finance, and digital media. Wisdom is the visionary force behind SkulManager, Ghana’s premier school management ecosystem, and the Lead Consultant at Education-News Consult.
A self-taught innovator, professional Web Designer, and regular columnist on GhanaWeb, Wisdom engineered SkulManager.com as the only platform strictly tailored to the GES Curriculum. His technical leadership has redefined educational assessment through a Hybrid Marking Ecosystem, pioneering the BECE and WASSCE Home Mock services—a unique fusion of WAEC-trained human examiners and advanced AI marking engines operational since 2022.
Wisdom’s 360-degree view of institutional challenges is grounded in his tenure as College President and Lecturer at Pinnacle College (Achimota), as well as his background as a school administrator and accountant. He is a dedicated lifelong learner currently advancing his studies at the Accra Institute of Technology (AIT), with academic ties to the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA).
An accomplished author, his works include Returnees of the Dead Forest (UK Published), Simplified Beacon of Light (850+ Q&A), and The Leader in Me. A foundational pillar of the award-winning NGO Human Rights Reporters Ghana (HRRG), Wisdom is committed to building intelligent systems that solve societal problems and prepare the next generation of Ghanaian students for a digital future.
Contact: 0550360658 | Portals: GhanaEducation.org, GhanaEducationNews.org, SkulManager.com, BECEPrep.com. Educationnewsconsult.com etc