President Akufo-Addo with Antonio Gutteres, UN Secretary-General
The Executive Director of the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Mrs Henrietta Holsman Fore, has commended President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, for implementing the free Senior High School (SHS) policy.
Mrs Fore said: “If I may pay homage to President Akufo-Addo, having free secondary school is probably the greatest gift you can give to a family and a girl. It then encourages the girl not to be considered lesser in her family, and it encourages her to go to school.”
The UNICEF Executive Director explained that “if a girl can go to school, then there are so many other benefits. There are health benefits. She does not become a young mother and become a young bride. Half of the maternal deaths are because the mothers are too young, there are adolescents, and they are children with children. The benefits (of free secondary education) to society are immense. For girls, we see that it is probably the single most important area for a government to bring up.”
President Akufo-Addo with Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Director General
Mrs Henrietta Fore made this known, on Friday, April 27, 2018, at a high-level event to mark the achievement chalked by the Education Above All Foundation in enrolling ten million children in school to receive quality education across the world.
President Akufo-Addo, who attended the event in his capacity as co-Chair of the Group of Advocates of Eminent Persons of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), stated that there is no part of the world that does not recognise the importance of education.
“We have all accepted that education is the best route to moving out of poverty. Today’s youth, running barefoot to school, could be a future leader in the arts, business, government, industry or sports,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo told the gathering that his father, “lost both parents at a tender age. But through perseverance and borrowing money from a relative, he burnt the midnight oil to end up as a barrister and become the outstanding figure that he was in Ghana. Indeed, at the time I was born, my dad was still paying off monies borrowed from that helpful relative.”
With 63 million children in the world, between the ages of 6 to 11, currently out of school, President Akufo-Addo noted that EAA and UNICEF will help bridge that gap, and draw us closer to the realisation of Sustainable Development Goal No. 4, which enjoins us to help ensure inclusive and equitable quality education, and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
“For us in Ghana, the Capitation Grant, introduced some 13 years ago, under the administration of that far-sighted Ghanaian statesman, His Excellency John Agyekum Kufuor, the 2nd President of Ghana’s 4th Republic, is, presently, enabling six million, three hundred and seventy-one thousand, nine hundred and seventy five (6,371,975) school-going children, representing some 90% of school-going children in Ghana, to enjoy fee-free education in our basic schools,” he said.
The President continued, “The Free Senior High School Policy, introduced by my Government in September last year, has put ninety thousand (90,000) more students into Senior High School in 2017, than in 2016. Our goal is to guarantee every Ghanaian child a minimum of secondary school education. It is the hope of every mother and father, not only in Ghana, that education will help their children escape poverty, and provide them with the avenue to a good life.”
On behalf of the ten million children, who are being afforded the opportunity to sit in a classroom, and chart their path for the future, President Akufo-Addo said: “thank you, once again, to Her Royal Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Education Above All and UNICEF.”