ACCRA, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo on Tuesday officially launched the Free Senior High School program, which is the government's flagship policy on education.
About 400,000 students are expected to benefit from the education policy which started across the country on Monday.
The initiative, which is also aimed at making SHS the minimum academic qualification in Ghana, will exempt them from paying for tuition and other essential fees.
Akufo-Addo said by removing cost which was one of the biggest obstacles which currently stood in the way of the students, the policy would ensure that no child was denied access to secondary education.
He said the cost of providing free secondary school education would be cheaper than the cost of the alternative of an uneducated and unskilled workforce that had the capacity to retard the country's development.
Statistics indicate that over the last four years, an average of 100,000 students who are placed in public senior high schools each, after completing their basic education, do not take up their place.
This means that in the next decade, about one million young men and women would have had their education terminated at junior high school.
"Such a situation is totally unacceptable, and I am determined to end it. This is why my government is, today, beginning the implementation of the Free Senior High School Policy," he said.
He said the government had decided to use the proceeds from the nation's numerous natural resources, including oil and gas, to help educate the population drive Ghana's economic transformation.
