Attorney-General advocates renewable energy use in schools
The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, has advocated the promotion of renewable energy use in schools.
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He said that would not only ensure regular supply of electricity to improve on the learning environment, but also avoid situations where power supply to some institutions was cut for non-payment of electricity bills.
“As is clear, solar energy is derived from a natural source that is replenished at a far higher rate than it is consumed.
“Together with wind, sunlight are sources of energy that are constantly being replenished.
“Solar energy is the most abundant of all energy resources and can even be harnessed in cloudy weather,” the A-G said.
Mr Dame was speaking at the 114th Speech and Prize-giving Day of Adisadel Senior High School in Cape Coast in the Central Region last Saturday on the theme: “Powering education through sustainable solar energy.”
Significance
Mr Dame, who was the guest speaker, said the UN Climate Change Action Policy had estimated that the share of renewable and solar energy use in the global power supply system would more than triple by 2050.
“Secondary education is critical to the growth, development and the future of the nation as it results in a more enlightened and empowered society.
That is why the Free SHS policy introduced by the government is a serious game-changer for this country’s future.
“The supply of reliable, efficient and affordable energy is necessary to the sustenance of the Free SHS programme,” he added.
The A-G also said that the adoption of free SHS which had made education accessible, implies an increase in energy demands of schools.
Citing a UN Climate Change action report, Mr Dame, who is an old student of Adisadel SHS, said the rate at which solar energy was intercepted by the earth was about 10,000 times greater than the rate at which mankind consumed energy.
Location
“By dint of Ghana’s privileged location on the planet, we are endowed with solar energy as a country.
We cannot miss out on the opportunity sunlight provides to make significant contribution to the energy mix for every senior high school, especially the boarding institutions,” the A-G said.
Solar energy, Mr Dame added, had the potential to create more jobs for the people.
He said although the initial installation might entail some cost to institutions, “I recommend that for less privileged institutions, there must be cooperation in the nature of public-private partnership”.
Mr Dame congratulated the Headmaster of the school, Samuel Agudogo, on the work he was doing and paid glowing tribute to the past and present students of the school.
Prosperity
In a speech read on behalf of President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, by the Minister for the Interior, Henry Quartey, he said the nation could not prosper if it remained a mere producer and exporter of raw materials.
The President said this situation can, however, be changed with an educated population, “that is why the government will spare no effort in ensuring that the free SHS policy succeeds”.
He said training students with 21st century skills was essential in preparing the nation’s future workforce for the fourth Industrial Revolution through STEM education.
“Even though the manifesto of the New Patriotic Party, the party from which my government was born, prioritised the study of STEM in its 2016 and 2020 manifestos, it was the re-imagination of education, in the advent of COVID-19 and preparing the youth for jobs that reinforced the need to increase the percentage of students undertaking general science in SHSs,” he added.
