The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has affirmed that the Free Senior High School concept is working and making a great impact on the nation’s education.
He explained that the systematic and consistent improvement in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results in the country over the past six years attest to the impact being made by the FSHS initiative in the nation’s education.
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo announced this on Saturday at the 70th-anniversary celebration of the Opoku Ware School in Kumasi.
The event which had the theme “seven decades of leadership through self-discipline” brought together many dignitaries such as the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the Chairman of the Council of State, Nana Otuo Serebour, some Ministers of State, a retired Supreme Court Judge, Justice Stephen Alan Brobbey, the Education Minister, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum and a host of other dignitaries who graced the grand durbar.
“The policy has indeed been facing some challenges but that does not mean that the gains made by the policy should be pushed under the carpet”, adding that “beneficiaries of the policy has increased from 800,000 in 2017 to 1.3 million students to date is another landmark associated with the policy”. He said.
The President assured the nation that despite the economic challenges confronting the nation, everything possible was being done to find a lasting solution to the policy for many Ghanaian children to get the opportunity to benefit from the policy.
President Akufo Addo, indicated that the 2022 results of the WASSCE were the best results ever for the past eight years and pledged to donate more funding to the policy for many Ghanaian children to attain the FSHS initiative.
Validity of FSHS Policy
“Surely, there can be no longer any controversy about the validity of the Policy if the consequential measure, it is working and working well,” the President said.
The Education Minister, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, in his remarks, praised President Akufo-Addo, for his commitment towards revamping the nation’s education system.
He pledged to work extra hard towards sustaining the gains made in the education sector and for that matter effort towards transforming the nation’s economy through education.
Appeal to stakeholder
Dr Adutwum appealed to all stakeholders in the nation’s education to continue working hard to ensure that the country attained the best education for its development.
The Headmaster of Opoku Ware School, Rev Fr Stephen Owusu Sekyere, commended the government for providing infrastructure and another form of support to the school.
He also lauded the efforts of the Old students, staff and management of the school for their roles in uplifting the image and gains made by the school and also promised to redouble his effort toward moving forward with more laurels.
Records of WASSCE
This year’s English Language pass for the WASSCE was 60.39 % as against 54.08% for 2021, the score for Mathematics for this year is 61.39% as against 54.11% for 2021, that of Integrated Science on the other hand dipped from 65.70% last year to 62.45% this year while that of Social Studies made gains of 71.51% for this year as against 66.03 last year.
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