Samira Bawumia, Second Lady
Second Lady, Samira Bawumia, has stated that government is focused on ensuring that quality education becomes accessible to all children, irrespective of their social or financial circumstances.
According to her, government believes education is the bedrock upon which every nation’s growth and development is anchored adding, “our human resource capital is our greatest asset, and we have a duty to capitalize on that for the ultimate benefit of our society.
The second lady was speaking on behalf of the Vice President, Dr Mahamadu Bawumia at the 68th Speech and Prize Giving-Day Celebration of T. I. Ahmadiyya Senior High School in Kumasi last Saturday.
“It is this core belief that drives government’s Free SHS policy, which was rolled out in September 2017 at the start of the 2017/18 academic year. Inevitably, the Free SHS policy means an increase in the number of children accessing senior high school education, for the simple reason that children who would otherwise have stayed at home because of the financial barriers to senior high school education, now have a chance to change their destiny,” the second lady stated.
Mrs Bawumia said about 90,000 more children had taken up their places in Senior High Schools than in previous years adding, “this, primarily is because we have lifted financial barriers with the implementation of the Free Senior High School policy|”
“This means that as a matter of priority, government has to focus on expanding the physical infrastructure in our senior high schools in order to accommodate the anticipated rise of student numbers in the coming years,” she said.
She disclosed that under the Secondary Education Improvement Project (SEIP), government has successfully negotiated an additional $40m from the World Bank to expand the project to include facilities upgrade in 75 senior high schools in the country.
The second lady added that the Akufo-Addo administration is also continuing the physical works on the existing Community Day Schools in the country. “Government is determined to ensure that the Free Senior High School policy will not compromise quality education in any way and is working hard to ensure that any challenges we face are resolved as soon as possible,” she assured.
She affirmed that the implementation of the Free SHS policy was going on very well in T. I. Ahmadiyya Senior High School; as per the monitoring exercise recently undertaken on senior high schools.
Mrs Bawumia advised teachers in the school to be diligent in their dealings with students and encourage them to take up their studies seriously.
“Be effective role models for them, because at their impressionable ages, how you conduct yourselves will have a huge impact on their lives. Guide them to understand that they are the future leaders Ghana needs,” she said.