President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has assured that candidates taking part in the ongoing Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), will enjoy government’s free Senior High School programme.
The much hyped Free SHS policy by the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), is expected to kick start in the next academic year which begins in September 2017.
[contextly_sidebar id=”Wngk4r7O4LxbHHPtVWILFXsOqkBcnrWl”]“…From September this year, anybody entering the public Senior High School system is going to get their education free. The burden is being taken on by the State. We are doing so because we believe that having access to education, empowering our human capital, is our biggest challenge,” the President said added.
Akufo-Addo made the remark on Tuesday when he addressed the Ghanaian community resident in Belgium, as part of his visit to that country, ahead of the conduct of the meetings of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals Advocates Group of Eminent Personalities.
The President added that “If we are able to do that, within the shortest possible time, and expose our young people to education, especially to new digital technology, it becomes the fastest way to bridge the gap and pull ourselves out from the poverty in which we are in today.”
“The commitment for Free SHS was not a political gimmick. I kept saying it in my campaign, but my opponents will not agree with me. It was not a political gimmick. It is a development tool for our country, so that we put the country onto the path of progress and prosperity,” he added.
Over 460,000 candidates write BECE
A total of 468,053 candidates registered to take part in the BECE at various examination centres across the country.
Out of the number, about 200 candidates from two communities in the Bunkpurugu District of the Northern Region could not write two papers on the first day of the exams due to a change in their examination centres.
They complained that the examination centre was too far from the communities.
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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin