General News of Friday, 10 July 2020

Source: GNA

Establish more universities to absorb SHS students

Senior high school students at assembly ground Senior high school students at assembly ground

Mr Daniel Dotse, the Chief Executive Officer, Lead for Ghana, a Non-Governmental Organization in education, has called on government to establish more public universities and tertiary institutions to absorb the increasing number of Free Senior High School (SHS) graduates.

He said the high number of students completing SHS demanded that more public universities and tertiary institutions were established to prevent some students from dropping out.

Mr Dotse said this at the Fifth Cohort induction ceremony of 105 graduate students into Fellowship programme in Accra.

Statistics from the Ghana Education Service indicate that 91 per cent of children in Ghana start primary school with only 16 per cent making it to universities.

The NGO recruited “young and brilliant” university graduates for mentorship into its two-year teaching and community development jobs.

Mr Dotse said the recruits, also called Fellows, would be deployed after successful mentorship to teach Science, Mathematics, Information Technology or English in basic schools in communities across the country.

He said the Fellows would be paid monthly salary with social security benefits.

After completion of the two years community project, the Fellows would be inducted into the Lead For Ghana Alumni Network.

From 2016, the NGO mentored 65 Fellows in 29 schools in Western, Volta, and Northern regions, helping to improve educational outcomes of more than 2,000 children.

There were plans to expand the programme to Ashanti, Greater Accra, and Eastern regions by the end of 2020, he said.

Ms Yvonne Peters Asamoning, Alumni of 2016 Cohort, said the programme had helped her to learn problem solving techniques.