President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has challenged the first batch of students of the Free Senior High School Policy to work extra hard to pass next year’s West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) to shame critics who are just waiting impatiently to condemn the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy.
The cynics, the President noted are waiting for the poor results to say we told you so, urging the students to prove them wrong by passing excellently to give impetus to Free SHS policy.
The President was addressing students of Sunyani SHS at Sunyani in the Bono Region, to kick start his two-day working visit to the region.
President Akufo-Addo said the 21st century world today was a knowledge-based one and that efforts must be made to give equal opportunity for every Ghanaian child stressing that nobody knows where the next genius or president would come from in our country.
The Minister of Education, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh said government would spend GH¢ 2.4 billion on the Free SHS this year and urged the students to study hard to justify the investment government was making on them.
He said before the Free SHS policy, school student population was 880,000 with 20 per cent attrition rate adding that for the past three years enrollment has reached 1.24 million in the country.
Nana Bofo Bene, Dwenemanhene and vice president of the Regional House of Chiefs earlier commended the President for development projects undertaken by his government upon assumption of power in the region.
He said projects in the area of health and education was impacting lives of the people.
FROM DANIEL DZIRASAH, SUNYANI
