Institute for Transgenerational Leaders holds public lecture on Free SHS policy to honour Akuffo-Addo

The lecture held at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) Campus was on the theme “Consolidating the gains of free SHS education policy, protecting the legacy for future generations”.

The Deputy Minister for Education, Rev. John Ntim Fordjour who was one of the guest speakers at the event, noted the relevance of the Free SHS policy by comparing the current era to previous years when public secondary education was not free.

“Many families then and now with their situation without free SHS will have to do opportunity cost and many times it’s the women that suffered. Because if you had three boys and three girls, it is the girls that will sit home and the boys will go to school. This is not a narrative that we must encourage,” he said.

The Deputy Minister noted that the implementation of free SHS ties in to the pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goal 4 which the government president Akufo-Addo is committed to.

He thus commended the president for his visionary leadership while thanking Ghanaians for supporting the policy.

“The dream to grant every Ghanaian child opportunity for secondary and TVET education at the second cycle level is a game changing vision. It is not a partisan vision. I always say the gains in Free SHS, this strategic investment that together we are making in the future of our children is not to any political party’s credit. It is a credit to all of us,” he added.

The Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Prof. Samuel Kwaku Bonsu, also speaking at the event, said Free SHS must be anchored on a sustainable Plan.

The rector called on government to setup a heritage fund to enable philanthropists donate to support the free SHS.

Put together by the Executive Secretaries of ITL; Lawrence Kwesi Botchway Jnr, Odeneho Oppong Prince and Tony Marshall Adoninaab, the lecture coincided with the birthday of President Akufo-Addo who birthed the idea of free SHS and implemented the policy in his first year in office.