It is emerging that Ghana’s celebrated Free Senior High School (SHS) Programme is creating a labour market and human capital development challenge where graduates from the programme feel too big and proud to learn a trade or skill.
The programme was aimed at removing the financial barriers and opening the gates of education to thousands who otherwise may not have been able to afford it. However, Labour Economist, Prof. William Baah Boateng, has identified that the policy, while welcoming, has a lot of labour market challenges.
Professor William Baah-Boateng points to a “dark side” of the Free SHS that, while the policy has boosted enrolment, its heavy focus on grammar education, rather than skills development, has left many young people unprepared for practical work.
Speaking at a World Bank event on the challenges of Ghana’s labour market, the labour economist revealed that, in his research, he has realised that when a young person finishes JHS and wants to learn a trade, auto-mechanics, hairdressing, tailoring, he or she is willing to do it.
However, once they pass through SHS, they no longer want those options since there is the feeling of growing past that.
To drive home his point, the economist illustrated this with a family story. His niece, despite poor grades that could barely secure a professional programme, rejected opportunities in hairdressing and dressmaking after SHS. Instead, she held out for nursing, only to later end up getting pregnant and giving birth.
“Unfortunately, in our free SHS, I think we still put our mind on grammar education. But it is also important to have skill development, technical, and vocational education,” he remarked.
“Now, my experience in my research is that when a young person finishes JHS, and you want the young person to learn a trade, they’re willing to do it. Auto-mechanic, hairdressing, let me say, apprenticeship. But the moment he moves into secondary school and finishes, he doesn’t want to do it,” he added.
For him, this mindset reflects a wider structural challenge. Free SHS graduates often equate academic schooling with white-collar jobs, but Ghana’s economy is not producing enough of such jobs.
Meanwhile, trades and vocational work, which are very critical to industrialisation and national productivity, remain stigmatized, even though they present more realistic employment avenues.
The economist cautions that unless Ghana rebalances Free SHS by embedding robust skill training and apprenticeships, the nation risks producing a generation of certificate holders with limited employable skills.
