President Nana Akufo-Addo is encouraging Muslim parents to ensure that their children, especially girls, are enrolled and made to stay in school.
According to him, that will help address challenges such as poverty and disease in their communities.
[contextly_sidebar id=”dZo2pjjo0otT8bxnrW5FwLaUEUHQRc66″]President Akufo-Addo made the comment in his speech at the national celebration of this year’s Eid-ul Adha at the Independence Square in Accra.
He said Muslim parents must take girl child education “seriously”.
“I cannot end my statement without urging the education of the Muslim girl or woman. We must take the education of the girl child seriously” he said, adding that “we shall be perpetuating, ignorance, poverty, and disease if the trainers of generations of Ghanaians remain uneducated.”
While urging the Muslim community to embrace the government’s Free Senior High School education program, Akufo-Addo explained that Ghanaians will be in a better place to practice their religion if educated.
“…The prophet Mohammed is reported to have said that ‘knowledge is the last property of the believer, let him or her find it wherever he or she will.’ I believe the Muslim should embrace this policy because it allows the fulfillment of prophetic admonishment.”
“We are in a better place to practice our religion if we are educated. The free Senior High School policy eliminates one of the major barriers to seeking secondary education; poverty. It is my fervent belief that it is an educated population that can accelerate the development of our country,” he said.
He also said the free SHS policy will help parents who hitherto could not afford school fees due to poverty to enroll their wards.
The Free SHS programme, scheduled to start in September 2017, will ensure that government absorbs the full cost of public secondary education.
Under the free SHS policy, beneficiaries will not have to pay admission fees, library fees, science centre fees, computer lab fees, examination fees and utility fees, according to the government.
The free SHS policy will also cover agricultural, vocational and technical institutions at the secondary school level.
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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana