ABSTRACT
The free senior high school policy is one of best social and economic intervention policies that openly affect both
parents and their wards in senior high school. This realisation is reached on the backdrop of the policy’s role in
redeeming parents from their economic and financial burden. This study therefore looks at the effect of introducing
the free senior high school policy on the economic and social lives of parents and students respectively. A
correlational cross-sectional descriptive design was used. Questionnaires were administered on three hundred and
thirty-six (336) parents of wards in three senior high schools in the North East and Upper East Regions of Ghana. The
study confirms that the introduction of the free senior high school policy relieved the financial burden of parents,
especially guardians from rural settlements. Besides, there was lack of adequate stakeholder consultation, hence
saddled with implementation challenges. Delay in disbursement of funds for feeding and learning materials
presented yet another problem. It is important that governments find sustainable sources of funding the educational
system and also ensure the double-track system is regularised into a single-track system by expanding academic user
facilities and increasing the numerical strength of both teaching and non-teaching staff in various senior high schools.
Keywords: Free Senior High School Education, Operationalisation, Policy, Parents.