WASSCE: ‘Akufo-Addo graduates’ have ‘put eggs on your faces’ – Pres. to Free SHS critics
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has expressed satisfaction with the Free Senior High School policy introduced by his administration in September 2017, saying the performance of the two batches of ‘Akufo-Addo graduates’ is proof enough that the policy is working.
According to President Akufo-Addo, “five years on following the implementation of the Free Senior High School programme, which has guaranteed a minimum of Senior High School education for 1.6 million Ghanaian children, I want to state, without any equivocation, that I am very proud of the policy and of its results thus far.”
Speaking at the 70th-anniversary celebration of the Tamale Senior High School (TAMASCO) in Tamale, on Saturday, 11 December 2021, the President stressed that the experiences of developed nations have shown that the most efficient way to create a society of opportunities, and, thereby, guarantee the future of a nation, is by investing in education and skills training of the youth.
Without an educated populace, he stated that Ghana cannot transition from the status of a developing to a developed nation, adding that “it is the people of Ghana, Ghanaians like you and me, and especially the youth of today, who are going to build Ghana.”
The results of the 2020 and 2021 WASSCE results, the President stated, give further evidence of why the Free SHS policy has been a success so far.
“There were some who described Free SHS as ‘a waste’; some said it would ‘destroy our Ivy League Schools’, and some indicated that the policy was going to compromise the quality of senior high school education. None of these has happened, and I am sure they have eggs on their faces now or should have”, President Akufo-Addo stated.
