Enrolment Dynamics and The Challenges of Secondary Education in the Northeast Region: The Role of the Free Senior High School Policy.

Abstract

The study examined the role of the free senior high school policy on school enrolment and the challenges confronting the policy implementation in the North East Region of Ghana. The study adopted a sequential explanatory research design and multi-stage sampling technique. Data was collected from 384 respondents through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Enrollment data from 2011/2012 to 2022/2023 was analyzed quantitatively using the mean comparison t-test. The challenges of the policy were qualitatively analyzed using thematic approach. The Kendall’s coefficient of concordance was used to rank the major challenges impeding the policy implementation. The mean comparison t-test results showed that the free SHS policy has significantly increased student enrolment in the North East Region. The result indicated that the average student enrolment increased from 311 to 520 after the policy implementation, showing a highly significant difference of 209. However, the findings revealed that the implementation of the policy has increased boarding student enrolment to the detriment of day student enrolment. While average boarding student enrollment increased from 997.5 to 2113.8 while day student enrolment declined from 571.8 to 554.3, showing the policy’s positive impact on boarding student enrolment and a negative effect on day student enrolment. The findings further revealed that the implementation of the free SHS policy is hindered by several obstacles including infrastructural deficits, food shortages, inadequate funding and delay in fund disbursement among others with infrastructural deficits been ranked as the most pressing challenge in the region with an average score of 5.25. Recommendations include collaborative efforts with stakeholders to address infrastructure needs, adequate funding allocation, timely fund disbursement, recruitment of more teachers, and provision of teaching and learning materials among others.