Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh
THE MINISTRY of Education has rolled out the new Tertiary Education Policy (TEP) which spells out what it calls ‘the ultimate structure, planning, development, regulation, operations and overall governance and accountability’ of the tertiary education in the country.
Minster of Education, Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh stated yesterday during the ‘Meet the press’ series that the policy was formulated in view of the fact that “there was no single point of reference document representing a coherent and holistic policy framework for the running of tertiary institutions in the country.”
He disclosed that in May 2018, Minister of State (Tertiary), in consultation with the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE), commissioned a team of experts to prepare a reference document to deal with emerging trends in the governance and effective running of tertiary education institutions.
“We believe that an educated, confident and skilled citizenry are crucial to every nation’s economic growth and development agenda,” the minister said, adding “the Ministry will continue to drive and implement interventions, programs and policies to meet the current needs that can better prepare us for the demands of tomorrow.”
Free SHS
Touching on government’s flagship programme, Free Senior High School (Free SHS), the Minister reiterated that “government’s commitment to secondary education remains that no qualified child is left behind,” adding that “the programme is about ensuring equity, expansion of infrastructure, quality of education, access and skills development.”
He said the total number of students that will be benefiting from SHS after the 2019 admissions would be about 1.2 million which he said is an increase of 400,000.
By September 2019 the Free SHS would go full blown (students from form one to form three will be benefiting).
“The total number of students in school, as we speak, is just about 800,000 and that’s two years of free SHS. By the time we finish this year’s admission, the population in our schools will be about 1.2 million,” the minister emphasised.
By Nii Adjei Mensahfio & Donny Morrison