The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, says due to the implementation of the free SHS policy, there’s a shortage of young girls who hitherto would’ve been serving as housemaids in the homes of affluent families mostly in the cities, often due to the inability of their parents to pay for their secondary school education.

“In fact, when we implemented free SHS, a lot of middle class families in Accra and other cities were finding it difficult to find house helps because the parents of the girls came for them and took them to school” he stated.

According to the Vice President, out of the 400,000 increase in SHS enrollment since the introduction of the free SHS policy, half of that number are young girls.

He said this situation increased the search for housemaids as the existing ones have left for school in the past four years.

“Free SHS has been beneficial especially to the girl child” he stressed.

Speaking as the guest speaker at the launch of the Konkomba Education Endowment Fund- KEEF, at the University of Ghana Business School, Dr. Bawumia said government’s investment in the education sector is borne out of a deliberate effort to build a wealth of human resource.

“Africa is the continent with the fastest growing youth population and they are the potential of the future”

He stated that, when the NPP government took over, many parents couldn’t afford to pay for fees to send their wards to school, especially the girl child.

He added that if President Akufo Addo had listened to critics of the initiative, many children wouldn’t attain secondary education.