President Akufo-Addo has announced that the government of Ghana will absorb the WASSCE fees of 313,837 SHS 3 students who will sit for this year's WASSCE examination.
According to him, an amount of GH¢ 75.4 million will be spent on the payment of fees for the students.
"These SHS 3 students, also referred to by some as the ‘Akufo-Addo graduates’, are the first group of beneficiaries of Government’s Free Senior High School policy to sit the WASSCE exams. 1.2 million children, the highest such enrolment in our nation’s history, because of this policy, are currently in Senior High Schools.
"Let us pause for a moment to consider what would have happened to the 400,000 more students, who have entered Senior High School between 2017 and 2019, without this policy in place," Akufo-Addo stated.
He stated that Free SHS was introduced because history and experiences from other developed nations have shown that the most efficient way to empower the population and thereby guarantee the future of the nation is by investing in education and skills training of the youth.
"This is because it is the people of Ghana, Ghanaians like you and I, and especially the youth of today, who are going to build Ghana. Without an educated populace, it will be difficult to transition from the status of a developing to a developed nation," Akufo-Addo noted.
He then assured that, "government is determined to protect the lives of the 800,000 students, teachers and non-teaching staff, who will be returning to school from tomorrow. I will be the last person to put the lives of the ‘Akufo-Addo graduates’ at risk."
Watch below the President's address.
