Nine years ago, then Minister of Education, Prof. Jane Naana Opoku Agyeman, warned that parents who deliberately choose not to support their children’s education financially will not be accommodated in President Mahama’s progressively free Senior High School (SHS) project.
She emphasized that the fee-free Senior High School initiative serves as an incentive for SHS attendance, alongside assisting parents who want to fund their children’s secondary education but lack the financial means.
“We are aware of parents who can financially support their children and we urge them to continue to do so and we are also aware of those who even go on to support other children – we want to express our gratitude for this key kind intervention.”
“We are also aware of parents who wish to support their dependents but they are honestly unable to do so. This intervention is for them. It is not for those who willfully decide to be irresponsible,” she noted when addressing the Chiefs and people of Ekumfi Otuam at the commissioning of a 24-classroom community day secondary school on Thursday.
The facility, commissioned by President John Mahama and named after the late President John Evans Atta Mills, marks the official launch of the progressively free Senior High School promised by the President in 2013.
In addition to its spacious 24 classrooms, the facility features four laboratories for Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Integrated Science, two libraries, eight offices for departmental heads, ICT laboratories, and an internet learning area. It was designed in an E-shape structure to symbolize excellence, according to officials, with other schools planned to have a similar resemblance.
This facility is one of the 200 community day senior schools promised by the President to be constructed across the country, especially in deprived and underserved communities, to enhance access to education.
Prof. Naana Opoku Agyemang further explained that students benefiting from the free SHS program in the 2015/16 academic year do not include day students receiving other forms of scholarships, such as those offered by the Ghana Cocoa Board, Northern Scholarships, the Secondary Education Improvement Project, as well as scholarships from NGOs, corporate bodies, and individuals.
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