‘Ghana has no time for trivia’ - President cuts sod for 50 SHSs and declares
The President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, Monday began the process leading to the fulfilment of a major electoral promise when he performed the joint sod-cutting ceremony for the construction of the first batch of 50 community day senior high schools (SHSs) at Nyanoa in the Upper West Akyem District in the Eastern Region.
Advertisement
The first set of schools are expected to be handed over to the government by August 15, 2015, and pioneer students will have the privilege to start SHS under the free SHS education policy as announced by the government.
Momentous occasion
It was a momentous occasion, as hundreds of people of the predominantly farming communities of Nyanoa and Kwabaa who are going to benefit from one of the schools continually applauded as the President spoke at the well-attended ceremony.
Location of the schools
In selecting the locations for the schools, the government took into consideration old and new districts without SHSs, as well as areas with congested SHSs so that the excess students will take advantage of the new schools.
Design
The design concept of the projects, the President said, was associated with excellence and took into consideration a number of factors, including future expansion.
Each of the schools will have three blocks of four-storeys each to include 24 classrooms and eight offices for departmental heads.
Others are four well-equipped laboratories for Chemistry, Physics and Biology; two libraries to seat 150 people at a time, an ICT laboratory to seat 45 at a time and a 40-seater Internet learning area.
Local materials
Mr Mahama said the contracts for the projects had been awarded to Ghanaian contractors and consultants had been tasked to ensure that as much as possible local materials would be used.
Importance of education
The President said the fact that education continued to take about one-third of the national budget attested to the importance the government attached to the sector.
Regrettably, he lamented, in spite of all the efforts to advance education, examination results fell below expectation.
He said that was why he fully supported the Ministry of Education's declaration of zero tolerance for teacher absenteeism.
Funding free SHS
President Mahama said "Ghana is a country in hurry" and that there was no need for arguments over trivial issues.
He mentioned discussions in a section of the media to the effect that the Minister of Education failed to reveal where funding for the free SHS would come from and pointed out that the minister was not clothed with the duty to provide the funding.
"It is my duty to provide the funds and they should wait for the 2015 budget to see where the allocation is coming from," he said.
Existing SHS
Mr Mahama said the government would continue to fund infrastructure development in existing SHSs, adding that the World Bank was giving support in that respect.
He said as a social democratic government, his administration saw education as a right and not a privilege.
Education Minister
The Minister of Education, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, called on the community members to be involved in the project, since they were going to be the eventual beneficiaries.
She said while the government moved to improve infrastructure, there was also the need for parents to put their children in schools.
Regional Minister
In a welcome address, the Eastern Regional Minister, Mrs Helen Ntoso, said the region was proud to host the joint sod-cutting ceremony for a project that had enormous benefits for rural communities.
"You have kept your promise and it is our turn to change our partisan ways and rally behind you for a better Ghana," she said.
Chief
The Chief of Nyanoa, Baffour Kwame Arko III, was full of praise for the President for his efforts at using education as the central point of development and said he and his people were already feeling "the wonderful effect".