President Akufo-Addo has praised the free senior high school policy as transformative.
The president indicated that the transformative policy introduced by his administration has broken myths and liberated minds.
He said this when he delivered his last State of the Nation address on February 27, 2024.
He said that although his political opponents labelled this policy as a political slogan, it has unearthed several talents and provided them with the opportunity to access secondary education.
“Mr. Speaker, Free SHS might be labelled by its detractors as a mere political slogan that must be demonised, but it is, in fact, a transformative programme that has broken myths and liberated minds. It is humbling on the one hand and frightening on the other, to think of the sheer number of talents that Free SHS has unearthed that would otherwise have ended their formal education at BECE.
I know we will get more engineers, doctors, architects, scientists, writers and poets out of the increased numbers of those attending Senior High School, who will go on to further education. Even if they stop at Senior High School, imagine what a million more Secondary School educated young people will do to our self-confidence and the value of our workforce. That, alone, makes Free SHS worthwhile.
I am proud that the NPP government, under my leadership, has been able to bring this transformative policy into our education system.”
The President added that the success of the Free SHS has answered its critics, and the arguments about it should cease, and we should simply concentrate on finding ways to improve it.
“I am particularly glad that the fears about lowering of standards have been allayed. Refreshingly, we witnessed, through the 2023 batch of Free SHS students, the best WASSCE results in a decade.
Mr. Speaker, there is more to education than Free SHS, and Government has been paying equal attention to all the other sectors. Kindergarten, Primary School and Junior High School must work together to give a solid foundation, and strengthen the Free SHS policy.
The implementation of various programmes such as Capitation Grant, Feeding Grants to Special Schools, BECE registration for pupils in public Junior High Schools, amongst others, have significantly increased access to education at the basic level.
The focus of the comprehensive reforms within the sector has been to improve learning outcomes and ensure every child that goes through our education system is equipped with literacy and numeracy skills by the time they exit primary six (6). A National Standardized Test for numeracy and reading skills is now being conducted at primary four (4),” he added.
He said the implementation of the policy was to place the maximum effort on the education and training of the youth as the basis for building the prosperous nation we seek.
To him, the policy has achieved a lot and granted several individuals who would have lost an opportunity to access secondary education due to poverty access to the free SHS.
“In the past seven years, I have met many people, young and old, across this country, who have told me about the first person in their families and in their communities to have gone to Senior High School. They might well ask the question, why are they the first boy or girl in their family to have gone to Senior High school. The answer is not far-fetched. Not being able to go to secondary school for lack of money was so widespread and an accepted phenomenon that it led to some people thinking Senior High School was not meant for them or their children or for people from their village, and, therefore, a child in the family finishing Junior High School and moving on to Senior High School was simply not factored in their expectations. “
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
