Prez Akufo-Addo says over 5 million students have benefitted Free SHS: True or False? Here is what we know

Moving forward to 2024, both President Akufo-Addo and Education Minister Yaw Osei Adutwum have claimed that the total number of beneficiaries has surpassed 5 million.

In this event, he reiterated the total number of beneficiaries under the Free SHS programme, stating that "5.10 million children have so far benefited from the SHS program since it was instituted in September."

But on the same podium, the president and his education minister, Dr.

Yaw Osei Adutwum, could not sing from the same hymn book as they gave varying accounts on the total number of beneficiaries under the programme.

This difference in numbers has raised suspicions regarding the actual total number of beneficiaries under the Free SHS programme, adding to the existing confusion surrounding the reported figures of over 5 million beneficiaries.

Let's approach this analysis by focusing on one of President Akufo-Addo's statements regarding the programme.

Unless the government is using a different calculation method, it is difficult to understand how the total beneficiaries in six years could surpass 5 million when the highest enrolment year only reached 503,000.

Even if the highest enrolment of 503,000 occurred in all six academic years, the total number of children covered by the Free SHS programme would not exceed 3.1 million (3,018,000 children).

Even if we generously use the president's highest enrolment figure of 503,000 for all years, the total number would still not surpass 3.1 million.

So, how did the government arrive at the 5.1 million or 5.7 million total beneficiaries statistics?

The discrepancy between the actual enrolment figures since 2017, which are less than 3.1 million, and the reported total beneficiaries of 5.1 million or 5.7 million demands clarity.