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<\/p>\nAs the start of the Free Senior High School policy beckons, President Nana Akufo-Addo has appealed to critics to avoid pessimism borne out of partisanship, and consider the long-term benefits of the government’s flagship policies.<\/p>\n
The President, at the unveiling of the Free SHS logo, said there was the need for people to understand\u00a0the correlation between free education and development.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”E5uFzGMalkeOiV3nAIkIi3VB5s5zeaQj”]”There will be in any new initiative, some wrinkles and glitches; but if we understand that this is important, not because a political party has made it its mantra and that the promise that it made is being fulfilled, but because it goes to the heart of what it needs to do to get our\u00a0country\u00a0going.\u201d<\/p>\n
He made reference to the United States of America, which begun moves to transition into to publicly funded high school education in the mid-1800s.<\/p>\n
The United States of America began to transition to publicly funded high school education for the vast majority of students, and this culminated in the country creating one of the most educated workforce in the world decades later.<\/p>\n
In the United States of America, free public education typically begins from kindergarten to grade 12 (the end of high school).<\/p>\n
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President Akufo-Addo expressed hope that a similar future lay in store for Ghana, if the Free SHS policy is given the opportunity to harness the talents of the children of Ghana.<\/p>\n
“What we need to do is to provide them an opportunity to express themselves. If that opportunity\u00a0is provided, I think very rapidly, we will see the transformation that we want to see in Ghana.”<\/p>\n
\u201cMy prayer is that when the\u00a0programme\u00a0unfolds, it will do so to the satisfaction of all of us and that a day will come that all of us will\u00a0recognize\u00a0that this was an important initiative for the future of our country,\u201d the President affirmed.<\/p>\n
The Free SHS programme is scheduled to start with the 2017\/18 academic year in September.<\/p>\n