Government through the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) is in the process of securing a $500 million loan to finance senior high school (SHS) infrastructure.
President Akufo-Addo, who announced this on Monday at a durbar of chiefs and people of Mankessim on the final day of his four-day tour of the Central Region, assured Ghanaians that “the Free SHS is here to stay, and will be a permanent feature of our educational architecture”.
He was responding to concerns by some section of the public that the government should have addressed the infrastructural needs of senior high schools before rolling out the Free SHS policy.
In a sharp rebuttal, Nana Addo said “we have taken the first bold step because we cannot continue to watch as tens and tens of thousands of qualified Ghanaian children drop out of school because they cannot afford fees”.
The president said the Free SHS would continue while government worked steadily to address all the infrastructural needs of senior high schools.
He appealed to the chiefs and people in the region to support government’s flagship programmes such as ‘planting for food and jobs’ and the ‘free senior high school’, whilst it continues to roll out several programmes to develop the Mfantseman Municipality.
Osagyefo Amanfo Adu VI, Omanhen of Mankessim Traditional Area, commended the president for delivering on his campaign promise and for introducing laudable flagship programmes and initiatives such as ‘planting for food and jobs’ and ‘one district, one factory’.
He implored the president to support the municipality’s 200,000-capacity poultry farm project which is aimed at creating employment for the teeming youth in Mankessim and its environs.
He said some German investors were ready to invest in the construction of a solar plant at Saltpond but a take-off agreement with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) was delaying the process and appealed to the president to use his good offices to quicken the process for the project to take off.
Osagyefo Amanfo Adu urged the government to expedite action on the construction of the irrigation project to enable people in the area to undertake agricultural projects.
GNA