Free SHS won’t replace northern scholarship — Kingsley Agyeman
Second and third-year students in second cycle schools in the three regions of the north will continue to enjoy the Northern Students’ Scholarship despite the introduction of the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy.
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The Northern Students’ Scholarship was introduced to bridge the gap between the north and south to serve as a means to encourage more young ones in the northern sector to attend school.
The Registrar of the National Scholarship Secretariat, Mr Kingsley Agyeman, who disclosed this at a press conference in Tamale last Tuesday, explained that the Free SHS educational policy was to add to the existing policy of the secretariat to enrol other students who could not have benefited due to some reasons.
He said it was also to address the difficulties most parents went through in accessing quality education for the younger generation.
Why the visit?
The registrar, who was in the region with other officials, wanted to access the state of the various SHSs and also ascertain the challenges confronting them for redress before the opening of school on Monday, September 11, 2017, which also marked the date for the commencement of the Free SHS education policy.
It was also to share some reforms taking place at the secretariat to improve its operations to ensure a smooth take-off of the programme.
Misconception
Mr Agyeman dispelled the notion that the introduction of the Free SHS policy was to take away or replace the northern scholarship, stressing that the introduction of the Free SHS policy was not to abolish the Northern Students’ Scholarship.
“We have engaged with lots of teachers, students and a section of the public, which revealed that there were lots of misconceptions about the policy, hence the need for the press conference to educate both the media, the heads and accountants of SHSs about the policy before its commencement,” he stated.
