Construction of new 50 SHS to begin this year - President Mahama

President John Mahama has reiterated his commitment to improving quality education in the country.

According to him, this is evident in the introduction of the resit examination for private candidates at the basic education level and the implementation of the progressively free Senior High School (SHS) program at the start of the 2015/16 academic year.

Delivering the state of the nation address in Parliament Thursday, President Mahama said as part of efforts to expand access to quality education, government would this year begin work on the construction of additional 50 community based SHS expected to benefit 367,000 day students.

“My resolve to expand access, improve quality and to ensure affordability was accentuated when we assessed the results of the West African Secondary School Exams (WASSCE) over the years,” President Mahama said.

According to him, the worse performance of the WASSCE was recorded in 2007 and not in 2014 as was portrayed.
 
“Between 2006 when the WASSCE began and 2014, the best performance index on students who obtained A1 to C6 was in the year 2012. Incidentally, the worst performance was recorded in 2007. In 2012, 31.19 per cent of students attained grades A1 to C6. In the worst performing year in 2007, only 10.58 per cent made grades A1 to C6,” he said.

“These statistics demonstrate the modest gains that we are making in improving quality education,” President Mahama said, adding that he would continue to work with stakeholders to ensure improvement over the next few years. 

Also three Hundred and Sixty Seven thousand Senior High School (SHS) day students will not be required to pay school fees for the 2015-2016 academic years. This provision has already been approved by Parliament in the 2015 budget. 

According to President Mahama,  government will make every opportunity available to improve a sustainable access to education as well as reduce cost on parents. 

President Mahama added that six million text books have already been distributed to basic schools this year and has charged the sector ministry to involve domestic publishers in the printing of text books. 

President Mahama also announced that to address gender disparities in education, fifty five thousand girls in JHS have received scholarships under the Ghana platform for education program. 

He noted that over ninety two thousand girls in the three regions of the north have benefited a from the take home ration platform


SOURCE: Monitored with some materials for this report  from Daily Graphic.