60 Pupils receive special awards for distinguished BECE performance
Sixty pupils drawn from across the country have been given special awards by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for their distinguished performance in the last Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE).
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The awards ceremony forms part of the 60th anniversary celebration of the country’s independence.
Presenting the awards, the President reiterated the government’s commitment to ensuring that children had free education up to the senior high school level.
He said his conviction was that education had a crucial role to play in the quest to transform the fortunes of the country.
Prosperous nation
He recounted that countries that became independent about the same time as Ghana but which had become far advanced in their development did so on the back of the provision of quality education for their citizenry.
President Akufo-Addo was optimistic that the future of Ghana would be better off when present generations and succeeding ones had at least secondary education at no cost to their parents or families.
He, therefore, urged the awardees to be spurred on by the recognition to work extra hard at ensuring that they studied hard to justify the investment being made by the state, their parents and other stakeholders.
Determination
The Minister of Education, Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh, said the government’s determination to streamline operations within the educational sector towards meeting national goals would not come easily, but with determination and hard work.
“We must understand and be clear in our minds that not everything would be smooth and easy, but surely with God on our side, we shall overcome,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo said he hoped that children in the country’s basic schools who had been placed under the care and tutelage of teachers would grow up to become responsible, functional and effective citizens for the development of the country.
“It is our unwavering belief in education as the key to national development that feeds our resolve as a country and the president’s resolve to take us onto the path of a right up to secondary education which starts in September this year,” he said.
Free SHS
He said from September this year the free SHS would begin; it will be accessible to every Ghanaian child that passes the BECE and gains admission to a public senior high school, including technical, vocational and agricultural schools.
“We want to gradually emphasise and bring to prominence technical and vocational education as the number one option for boys and girls who are entering the junior secondary school,” he stressed.
To the awardees, he said the nation was proud of their achievement for which reason the President himself had chosen to honour them to be an inspiration to others.
He said in all, 60 awardees had been selected from all regions for the awards, adding that the awards they were being given constituted the first step towards nation building.
“I have seen people of this greatness who lacked a moral compass and so fall along the wayside. Commitment and consistency would build a good character that would let you excel in life. Excellence should be your watchword in reaching where you want to reach so that Ghana would be proud of you in the very near future.”
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