President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has indicated that government intends to pursue the policy of upgrading 42 existing senior high schools to model schools as was done under the administration of former President John Agyekum Kufuor .
This, he said, is an important step towards delivery of quality education.
“Technical and vocational skills are crucial to our industrialisation agenda, and we are committed to making them attractive to young people. The Free SHS policy will cover pupils who gain admission to technical, vocational and agricultural institutions,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo stated that work has commenced to align all public TVET institutions under the Ministry of Education to provide effective policy direction and co-ordination in skills development.
Government, he added, has also reserved 30% of places in the top 82 senior high schools to students from basic public schools, as, currently, these top schools are almost wholly populated by students from junior high private schools with good performance at the BECE, relative to the basic public schools.
“Under the Free SHS policy, we will ensure that students from basic public schools have equal opportunity to enrol in any of the top senior high schools in the country,” he said.
The President continued, “We believe this is crucial in ensuring that we do not inadvertently encourage a permanent class divide, where a child from a background, whose parents are unable to afford junior high private school education, is pre-destined to be excluded from the top senior high schools in the country. That is unconscionable, and potentially dangerous for social cohesion.”
Source: otecfmghana.com
