The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has given the assurance that government will continue to provide the policy direction and conducive educational environment and the basic infrastructure for the implementation of the Free Senior High School Programme.
The Vice President gave the assurance in a speech read for him by the Minister of State in the Office of the Vice President and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Madina, Mr Abu-Bakar Saddique Boniface, at the 8th Speech and Prize Giving day of the Bolgatanga Senior High School held on the School compound on Saturday.
The occasion which was used to launch the golden jubilee of the School scheduled for next year was on the theme “Sustaining Free Quality Second Cycle Education for All Ghanaian Children: The Role of Stakeholders”.
The Vice President stressed that Ghana had entered new global era which is driven, dominated and characterised by Information Communication Technology(ICT) and stated that it was based on this background that the New Patriotic Party under the leadership of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo introduced the implementation of the Free Senior High School model.
“Ghana is not an island of its own, and therefore we cannot afford to do business as usual. To catch up with the rest of the world, we have to accelerate our literacy levels.
“To achieve this, Ghana cannot afford to slow down our process by limiting education to only those who can afford it. It is for this reason that the Government is committed to providing at least Free Senior High level education as basic education to all Ghanaians,” Dr Bawumia stressed.
The Vice President stated that the government alone could not do it all and called on parents to provide conducive learning environment at homes for students and to help discipline and mould them to become more responsible.
He also appealed to both teaching and non-teaching staff to work hard by ensuring that they perform their assigned roles in the upbringing of students so as to prevent outsiders from unduly exploiting students.
Among several challenges facing the school, the headmaster noted the need for government to help the school fence its wall, complete the abandoned school projects, provide transport and the need to engage non-teaching staff to man the school kitchen as key.
Responding to some of the challenges of the school raised by the Headmaster of the School, Mr Afelibiek Ababu, the Minister of State in the Office of the Vice President, gave the assurance he would carry the concerns to the Vice President and the Government.
FROM SAMUEL AKAPULE, WINKONGO
