Enrolment into the various senior high schools (SHS) across the country has increased by 50 per cent since the introduction of government’s flagship Free Senior High School (Free SHS) programme, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia has said.
Speaking at a ceremony last Thursday at the Accra High School where he presented some 75 buses and five pickup trucks to some selected public schools, Dr. Bawumia intimated that the Akufo-Addo-led government has in the last five years, committed to increasing access to quality education and providing vehicles to senior high schools to support the transportation needs of the growing population in the schools.
“This government, since 2017, resulting from the President’s Free Senior High School policy, has increased secondary school enrolment to an excess of 1.2 million students. Indeed, the introduction of Free SHS has increased the senior high school enrolment in Ghana by 50% and this is massive,” he touted.
The Vice President also noted that the handing over of the vehicles was in fulfilment of government’s pledge to address the logistical and other needs of the education sector and also to expand access to education.
The beneficiary institutions include Lambussie Community Day SHS; St James Seminary; Begoro Presby SHS; Techimantia SHS; Odupong SHS; Asankragua SHS; Wa SHS and Koforidua SHTS.
Others are STEM SHS Kpasenkpe; Accra Academy SHS; Anum Boso SHS; Tepa SHS; Northern School of Business; Osino Presby SHS; Oti Boateng SHS; Tarkwa SHS; Asare Bediako SHS; Assin North SHTS and Bosomtwe Girls STEM SHS.
The donation on Thursday becomes the fourth time the Vice President has handed over vehicles to schools and institutions in the last two years, after earlier occasions in March 2020 when he donated 365 Isuzu double cabin pickup trucks procured by the government and 493 motorbikes to aid the work of Circuit Supervisors; as well as in July 2020 when he donated 100 out of 350 buses procured.
The Vice President emphasised that the handing over of the vehicles is further concrete evidence of the government’s “commitment not only to increase access, but also to ensure that we provide the complementary resources to make sure that we deliver quality education for our nation.
“In handing over these buses and pickups, I want to encourage the various schools receiving these buses and pickups to ensure a maintenance culture to harness the potential in these students for our transformational agenda.”
Dr. Bawumia also commended the Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, and the leadership of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund), for their “hard work” which has ensured the procurement and delivery of the vehicles, and urged them to “continue with this hard work so that we can see more vehicles for our students.”
By Nii Adjei Mensahfio