Prof Addae Supports Funding Of Free SHS With Oil Money

Professor Stephen Addae has lauded the decision of the Akufo-Addo administration to use part of the country's oil money to fund the free Senior High School (SHS) policy in the country.

Funding of the free SHS policy, which is a major campaign promise of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), generated debate across the country.

But President Akufo-Addo, at the launch of the programme in September last year, stated that his administration would use part of the country's oil revenue to fund the policy which would ensure access to senior high school education by all school-children.

Speaking at a ceremony to raise funds for the Odeefo Oteng Korankye II Education Fund at Brekusu in the Ga East Municipality, Prof Addae, noted that the initiative is appropriate.

He was hopeful the policy would benefit millions of children who would have been caught in the vicious cycle of ignorance, poverty and depravation.

“His (President Akufo-Addo) commitment to use part of Ghana's oil money to educate young people is the right way, that is the only way to spread the money to every village and therefore it's good, and I am hoping that many millions, like I was, will no longer be caught in the vicious cycle of ignorance, poverty and depravation because many of them are there,” Prof Addae added.

“Access to education is a factor while quality education is another.

“We need both of them because if we are not careful we will be only pushing people from failing at BECE to fail at WASSSCE.”

“This would not do the nation any good and therefore we must avoid the situation where free education will lead to producing semi illiterate senior high school students, which means that they have only wasted three more years.”

He called on government to pay attention to quality of education at that level.

Prof Addae expressed worry about the 'weakness' of teachers in public basic schools as a result of the lack of proper supervision and accountability despite huge salaries paid to them as compared to their counterparts in private basic schools.

“We cannot be paying the average trained teacher more than GH₵1,000 who has better facilities to work with and they produce outcome worse than the private schools, which are managed by secondary school failures and yet because they are supervised and they are held accountable they produce better outcome,” Prof. Addae declared.

He commended Odeefo Oteng Korankye II for putting the educational fund in place to support pupils in his area and called on all to support him.

Rebeca Awuah, Board Chair of the Odeefo Oteng Korankye II Education Fund, said the fund would help the children of Brekusu to excel and become responsible adults in future.

She said the medium and long-term objective of the fund is to secure scholarship for technical and vocational training.

“The fund supported the best 11 pupils from the seven basic schools in the area in the 2017 academic year, and 10 more will benefit this year, she said.

Odeefo Oteng Korankye II thanked all the stakeholders and called for more support to help brilliant children in the area.

By Gibril Abdul Razak