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Government is resolute to ensuring all-inclusive access to education in the country through the Free SHS flagship programme.
The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia made the comments as the Special Guest of honour at the Hohoe E.P Senior High School.
Dr Bawumia said it was remarkable to see an increase in enrollment in the senior high school in six years, with 75 per cent as a result of the free SHS.
“But what is remarkable is that we are seeing a lot more and more gender parity right now before there used to be more boys than girls. But today in Ghana, there is gender parity in senior high schools as we speak,” he said.
The Vice President noted that education sits at the core of the government’s agenda 16 years ago, and added that the government rolled out a bold flagship free senior high school policy.
He said the programme was to pave the way for junior high school graduates who might not have had the opportunity to further their education to be able to do so with the more privileged pins.
“In other words, we wanted to level the playing field for the well-off as well. As the less well. Today, senior high schools are graduating twice the number of students they used, if not more. Enrollment in the senior high schools has increased from 800,000 in 2017 to 1.4 million at the end of 2022,” the Vice President said.
Dr Bawumia further explained that government is fully aware of the fact that the bold initiative of free senior high school education will surely come with challenges – prominent among them is the infrastructure deficit.
He said that it should be obvious to everyone that as the free senior high school policy has cleared away hindrances to education in the lives of some people, the number will balloon.
This he said that there was the need to expand the infrastructure capacity in the various secondary schools to solve the problem of crowding in classrooms and dormitories.
Dr Bawuia said the government introduced the double track system, which he said lasted for four years to give government space to put up classrooms and dormitories for senior high schools.
“Hohoe E. P Senior High School is one of the beneficiaries of this initiative to 12 unit classroom blocks and an 18 unit classroom blocks were built by the government to augment existing ones but as the headmaster has said in his report, there is more that is needed and we are going to provide more,” Dr Mahamudu Bawumia noted.
He commended the school authorities and students for their dedication to work and learning to help the school compete with other first-class schools.
The headmaster of the school, Mr Franklin Amesimeku enumerated the many challenges like infrastructure, water, security and appealed to the government to help it resolve them.
Mr Amesimeku also noted that the school did much better in 2022 which needs to be appropriated
The President of the Old Students Association of the school, Eric Norgbey in an interview with the media, revealed that plans are underway to construct an attractive modern assembly hall project of five thousand capacity for the school.
