A non-governmental organization, Volunteer Partnerships for West Africa (VPWA), has organized a stakeholder’s forum in Koforidua under the theme “Making Free SHS Work For All” with support from the Open Society Institute of West Africa (OSIWA) in Koforidua of the Eastern Region
The forum brought together representatives from the various stakeholder groups of the Free SHS policy, including the Free SHS Secretariat, Ministry of Education, National Food and Buffer Stock, Ghana Education Service, Scholarship Secretariat, Heads of Selected Senior High Schools, and the media.
The rationale behind the forum was to offer a platform for citizens to engage with duty bearers on the implementation of the Free SHS policy, and to provide an opportunity to increase or educate citizen’s understanding and participation in its implementation.
Speaking at the forum, the Deputy Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Adutwum, expressed that the free SHS policy was implemented to help in the transformation of the country as he believes one cannot talk about the development of a nation without education.
He affirmed that education is the only tool that can transform a country and that, if Ghana is able to create an educational system that delivers on access, quality and relevance, the country will be transformed.
However, the implementation of the flagship free SHS policy by the government is to give opportunities to the brilliant but needy students to acquire secondary education in its quest to transform the nation.
“The socio-economic transformation of our economy depends on education and that is why the government is so keen to invest in education in the country. The president is focused on creating access, delivering on access, quality and relevance” he said.
He then commended (VPWA) for the good work done in ensuring that the free SHS reaches its apex without any hindrance by making sure that the free SHS would be understandable to stakeholders and also come out with some of the challenges confronting the free SHS program.
He said stakeholder’s engagement like this gives them the opportunity to improve on their weaknesses and make the free SHS a better system for the entire country.
He encouraged students to take their education seriously as he believes they can help break the cycle of poverty within their own families and in the country as well.
The Deputy Minister of Education added that they are waging a war against poverty through education with the implementation of free SHS.
The Programs Officer for Volunteer Partnerships for West Africa (VPWA) and a member of the implementing partners, Evans Hockey also said it is imperative for stakeholders and other organizations to come together to support courses that will ensure that the youth are developed properly, hence “making free SHS free and accessible for all “.
According to him, students carry inherent potentials that if properly discovered, developed and deployed can take the nation into it desired glorious future.
He said, as volunteer’s partners for West Africa, they have to go round the country to gather data on some of the basic details that the free SHS implementation will need to expand its cord into other regions and into every Ghanaian.
He added that the forum has been an eye-opening and government and other civil organizations will come up to help expand the scope of the implementation.
In furtherance, he said (VPWA) will continue to mount pressure on every government that is in power to make sure that the policy is circulated across the board and there are no changes that will affect the education of the country.
Source: Sylvester Ntim
