Government has reiterated its commitment to ensure that the free Senior High School (SHS) policy, which will be rolled out in September this year for qualified students entering public schools, does not sacrifice quality.

Deputy Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, who gave the assurance, said government was collaborating with various partners to implement major programmes and interventions to guarantee quality.

These include Secondary Education Improvement Project (SEIP), expansion of physical infrastructure, free core subject textbooks to students and the enhancement of teacher education.

Addressing the 65th Speech & Prize Giving Day of St. Louis Senior High School (SHS) in Kumasi, the Deputy Education Minister also assured all Ghanaians that government would put in place pragmatic and necessary interventions that will motivate and impact on teachers and students to work harder.

He called on teachers, parents, non-governmental bodies, donor partners and students to play their roles in ensuring the success of the policy, revealing that the free SHS policy also covers technical and vocational education in the country.

According to him, many young people have been unable to access secondary education and benefit from the sort of training and opportunities a school like St. Louis SHS offers because of their families’ financial circumstances.

“As a nation, we cannot continue like this. It is a scar on our collective conscience. Our human resources are our most valuable asset and our children’s education is key to our economic growth,” Dr. Adutwum argued.

He continued that it was the vision of the Nana Addo-led government that no child is denied the opportunity of secondary education because of their financial circumstances, and pointed out that this was the cornerstone of the free SHS policy beginning in September for the 2017/2018 academic year.

An obstetrician and gynaecologist, Dr Ernest Puni Kwarko, who spoke on the theme: “Equipping the Girl for Tomorrow’s Leadership; Giving Back to Society”, said when society spends its resources to train the girl child, it is not doing her a favour.

Rather the expenditure should be considered as an investment. “One starts life as a child and a consumer dependent on a producer adult, and then ends up as a consumer in old age. When we help to equip the girl child today for tomorrow, we are simply securing own future consumption when we retire from active productive life.”

Lady Julia Osei Tutu, wife of the Asantehene, on her part commended teachers and management staff of the school for their selfless effort and mentorship in nurturing the young ladies to become responsible adults.

She charged the students to put in the maximum effort in order to take advantage of the education and training being offered at the St. Louis SHS.