Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, contrary to popular belief, claims that the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy has considerably enhanced secondary education’s quality.
He claimed that children were performing significantly better in WASSCE than in prior years, despite the significant rise in enrollments recorded under the strategy.
“Compared to the poor performance that we saw in 2015 regarding the aggregate passes in the core subjects in WASSCE, we have 41 per cent and in 2022, the aggregate passes increased to 64 per cent.”
Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia
Many people involved in education believe that Free SHS has reduced the quality of secondary education, and many of them are advocating for a reassessment of the system. Vice President Bawumia, however, asserted that the circumstances were entirely different.
“People assume that with the expansion of access, quality will suffer, and performance will decline, and this is essentially saying that the Law of Gravity will have to be obeyed. But access has expanded, and performance has improved and therefore we have defied the law of gravity.”
Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia
Dr. Bawumia added that the policy did not discriminate and that Free SHS has improved gender parity at the Senior High School level. He also praised other government initiatives and accomplishments, such as spending on technical and vocational education training, promoting STEM fields, and offering free Wi-Fi in a number of educational settings.
He said that the government’s ongoing efforts to increase educational opportunities and improve learning results demonstrated its commitment to Sustainable Development Goal 4, which aimed to promote inclusive and high-quality education for everyone.
Gov’t Achievement In Education Ssctor
Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia also praised the government’s accomplishments in the field of education, pointing to notable change and enhanced educational results.
He noted that when the New Patriotic Party (NPP) took administration in 2017, the sector was confronted with severe difficulties due to a lack of the necessary investment. However, the NPP government responded to the predicament with purposeful investments and revolutionary policies intended to give all Ghanaian children access to high-quality education.
According to Dr. Bawumia, the government built the most classrooms during the Fourth Republic with 5,411 classroom projects. He said that it has also built more public libraries than any other administration in Ghana’s history, bringing the total to 105 by 2022 from 61 in 2017.
The Vice President emphasized once more how the Free Senior High School policy has altered the nation’s educational system. He said that Free SHS has improved retention rates and enhanced access to secondary education because more students could finish their secondary school without facing financial hardships.
“Free SHS has bridged the access gap to quality secondary education and increased enrolment from 800,000 in 2016 to 1.4 million, a 75 per cent increase in six years. We firmly believe that education is the great equaliser and by providing access to quality education, we are creating a level playing field for all Ghanaian children.”
Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia
The Vice President also mentioned the government’s funding of Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) to give young people skills that will serve them well in the future. In addition to the recently launched Ghana TVET Service, he said that 32 contemporary TVET centers were being built with the purpose of advancing and boosting skills development in the nation.
In order to prepare for the fourth industrial revolution, Dr. Bawumia insisted that Ghana was making consistent development in the STEM fields. He claimed that the government has built and put into operation five STEM SHSs in addition to establishing the STEMNOVATION interschool competition for SHS and TVET schools.
With the colleges of education, the Vice President said there had been significant growth over the years, indicating their ability to now award degrees.
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