‘I’m proud of Free SHS; it is working’ – Akufo-Addo
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has expressedsatisfaction with the Free Senior High School policy introduced by hisadministration in September 2017, saying the performance of the two batches of ‘Akufo-Addo graduates’ is proof enough that the policy is working.
According to President Akufo-Addo, “five years on following the implementationof the Free Senior High School programme, which has guaranteed a minimum ofSenior High School education for 1.6 million Ghanaian children, I want to state,without any equivocation, that I am very proud of the policy and of its results thusfar.”
Speaking at the 70th-anniversary celebration of the Tamale Senior High School(TAMASCO) in Tamale, on Saturday, 11December 2021, the President stressedthat the experiences of developed nations have shown that the most efficient way tocreate a society of opportunities, and, thereby, guarantee the future of a nation, isby investing in education and skills training of the youth.
Without an educated populace, he stated that Ghana cannot transition from thestatus of a developing to a developed nation, adding that “it is the people of Ghana,Ghanaians like you and me, and especially the youth of today, who are going to buildGhana.”
The results of the 2020 and 2021 WASSCE results, the President stated, give furtherevidence of why the Free SHS policy has been a success so far.
“There were some who described Free SHS as ‘a waste’; some said it would‘destroyour Ivy League Schools’, and some indicated that the policy was going tocompromise the quality of senior high school education. None of these hashappened, and I am sure they have eggs on their faces now or should have”,President Akufo-Addo stated.
He continued, “The 2021 WASSCE results of the second batch of the ‘Akufo-Addograduates’ show 54.08% of students recording A1-C6 in English, as opposed to51.6% in 2016; 65.70% recording A1-C6 in Integrated Science in 2021, as opposedto 48.35% in 2016; 54.11% recording A1-C6 in Mathematics, as compared to33.12% in 2016; and 66.03% recording A1-C6 in Social Studies, as compared to54.55% in 2016. Lest we forget, the 2021 batch of students were the pioneers ofthe double-track system, which elicited a lot of vilification and unfounded criticism onits introduction.”
Another indication of the value of the Free SHS policy, he stated, is the dramaticincrease in the percentage of students from TAMASCO, who have qualified to attendthe university.
“In 2015, it was 29.2%; in 2016, it was 31.4%; in 2017, it was 34.7%; in 2018, itwas 31.3%; in 2019, it was 46.3%; and in 2021, it was 45.8%. Surely, Chairperson,there can no longer be any controversy about the validity of the Free SHS policy andits consequential measures. It is working,” he said.
The President, thus, appealed to all Ghanaians to “forgo partisan, parochialconsiderations, which confer little benefit, and all agree that Free SHS has to be apart of our national educational architecture, for, at least, a generation, if notforever. Our nation will clearly be empowered and enriched”.
Commitment to Education
Reinforcing the government’s commitment to ensuring the provision of quality, relevanteducation, President Akufo-Addo told the gathering that Government has introducedthe teacher licensure regime aimed at professionalising teaching, and bringing it inline with international best practices. Thus far, the National Teaching Council hasissued some one hundred and twenty-nine thousand (129,000) licenses to teachers.
Government, he added, has commenced the construction of twenty (20) Science,Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)centresacross the country, withall twenty (20) at various stages of completion.
Additionally, out of the one thousand, one hundred and nineteen (1,119) projects,being constructed under the Free Senior High School Infrastructure Intervention, sixhundred and fifty-seven (657) have been completed, with some two thousand,seven hundred and eighteen (2,718) vehicles procured and distributed by the GhanaEducation Service to various institutions across the country.
With the completion of nine (9) Model Senior High Schools across the country beingimminent, President Akufo-Addo told the gathering that “in 2022, the government willexpand the Free SHSProgrammeto cover all first-year students in public TVETInstitutes.”
He assured further that the government will continue with theprogrammeofimplementing the various reforms and projects in the TVET sector, including therehabilitation and upgrading of technical universities, upgrading and modernisationof the thirty-four (34) NVTIcentres, retooling of TVET Institutes, and theestablishment of ten (10) state-of-the-art TVET institutes.
