Don’t politicise Free SHS policy
The Executive Secretary of the National Media Commission, Mr George Sarpong, has advised that the country should avoid the exploitation of partisanship of the Free Senior High School (SHS) as the policy was clearly an insurance against poverty and underdevelopment.
To him, the two major political parties in the country needed to make a “deep soul searching”, which would require that, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), admitted that the policy was a social liberator capable of uplifting the people from despair, while the New Patriotic Party (NPP) should also realise that “while the policy is great, a degree of openness to feedback would improve it”.
Mr Sarpong was speaking as the guest speaker at the 75th anniversary of the Effiduase Senior High Commercial School in the Sekyere East District of Ashanti, under the theme “Achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through Free Senior High School education”.
According to him, questions about teachers’ welfare, conditions of service, vacation periods within the double-track system required sober discussions as the future of the youth was at stake.
He said the best way to attain the SDG one which was ending poverty for all and SDG two which sought freedom from hunger was to provide education to all young people to enable them launch themselves, families, communities and the country as a whole from poverty.
The headmistress of the school, Dr Grace Amoh-Agyei, noted that, the school was the only school in the district running the double track system with a current student population of 3, 827 as it was being ranked high among schools with larger population in the Ashanti Region.
Dr Amoh-Agyei stated that, the school currently has combined staff strength of 240 including 140 teaching staff and 100 non-teaching staff.
She commended the government for initiating developmental projects in the school, touting the school as one of the schools in the region with higher number of infrastructure as 12-unit classroom which was currently under construction was 70 per cent complete and 12-unit girls’ dormitory block by the Ghana Education Trust Fund was completed and occupied.
According to her, the school has managed to inculcate in the students a very high sense of both academic and moral discipline by enforcing proper adherance to the code of ethics of the school.
Touching on the challenges of the school, Dr Amoh-Agyei said the school lacked means of transportation for students as the only vehicle available was a 27-seater Eicher bus provided to the school in 2008 that has been conveying them to functions outside the campus, she appealed to the government to come to their aid.
Again, she appealed to the government for computers as the school lacked adequate computers considering the school offering elective Information and Communication Technology.
FROM FAUSTI KWABEA
