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The Minister for Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum was on Tuesday morning mobbed by traders mostly market women at Adum in Kumasi after he announced on the radio that the 2022 budget read recently was to help improve the lives of all Ghanaians through education development.
The women numbering about six hundred stormed the frontage of Hello Fm, a local radio station in Kumasi amid chanting and screaming of slogans such as “We thank Nana Akufo Addo for appointing you”, “we like STEM”, “Ghanaian parents are grateful to you” and “Ghana’s education is in the right hands among others.
Dr Adutwum who was visibly surprised by the number of the traders had no option but to stop and address them.
The Education Minister was moving out of the Despite building at Adum which houses Hello Fm after he was granted a 45 minutes interview on radio in connection with the recently read budget and how it was going to impact the education sector.
The action of the traders led to a blockage of the road from Adum to Kejetia for a few minutes since the chanting traders would not move from the area until they have been addressed by the Education Minister.
Response
Dr Adutwum expressed his appreciation to the gathering most of whom were market women from the Kumasi Central market, Kejetia market and others from the Adum Central Business area.
The Education Minster again thanked them for appreciating what was being done by the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo-led government in terms of the provision of various education interventions to ensure equity among all Ghanaians irrespective of where the person was located, political affiliation, ethnic and other considerations.
He assured them of the government’s desire to continue coming out with many more initiatives to ensure that the nation also will be at par with the rest of the world in terms of 21-century education standards.
Dr Adutwum urged the traders to have hope in the government as it was working very hard to ensure that every facet of the economy was given the needed resources to enhance the development of the nation.
Madam Yaa Fosuah, a single mother and a second-hand cloth dealer who spoke on behalf of the market women was full of praise to the government for creating an opportunity for poor parents to also have the opportunity to send their children to school for free.
“Dear Minister, my second son who is a beneficiary of Free Senior High School completed SHS last year and my last daughter is in her second year at Saint Louis SHS also benefitting from the FSHS. Thanks to the government”. She said.
Madam Yaa Fosuah appealed to the government to consider bringing more pro-poor interventions into the country to improve the lives of all Ghanaians.
Background
The Education Minster on Monday started a two-day working visit to the Ashanti region as he visited several radio stations explaining the education component of the recently read budget.
Apart from visiting the radio stations within the two days, he also participated in a forum dubbed “National Consultative Forum on Education Development of Infrastructure in Tertiary Education” organized by the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC).
By Ayisah Foster, Editor In-Chief
