The Minister for Water and Sanitation, Joseph Kofi Adda, who doubles as Member of Parliament (MP) for Navrongo Central, has advised parents, whose children would benefit from the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy being implemented by New Patriotic Party (NPP) government this year, to take advantage of the numerous opportunities.
He also asked parents to save money to finance the education of their children at the tertiary level in the near future.
Mr. Adda disclosed this while addressing first-year students of the Bolgatanga Senior High School (SHS) in the Bolgatanga Municipality as part of his tour of some senior high schools in the Upper East Region to ascertain the level of compliance and challenges facing school heads and students as part of the implementation of the free SHS policy.
He charged the students not to take the free SHS for granted, but learn hard to secure their future after school.
A total of 709 students were placed in the Bolgatanga Senior High School through the Computerized School Placement System. Out of the number, 588 first-year students have been registered and assigned courses and dormitories.
School’s management could however not tell journalists that accompanied the Water and Sanitation Minister and the Upper East Regional Minister whether the school has enough dormitories and classrooms to accommodate all students.
At the Bolgatanga Girls Senior High School, the school declared a total of 585 places, but 477 first-year students were placed under the Computerized School Placement System.
Out of the number, over 420 had been registered and assigned to dormitories as at Monday September 18, 2017.
The Minister for Water and Sanitation promised to construct a borehole in the school to boost water supply in the school.
He also promised that the school would soon get a 12-seater water closet toilet facility to replace the current KVIP toilet facility in the school which was not conducive for girls.
Upper East Regional Minister, Rockson Ayine Bukari asked the first-year students to take their studies seriously in order to become productive citizens in future.
“Your future begins from here, if you start well you will end well. Time management is very important during this stage of your life. Many people have not been successful in life because they did not use their time judiciously. Please be time conscious and respect your authorities and they would train you to become future leaders of this country.”
According to the Minister, poor time management was a major problem facing Ghana and there seems to be no deliberate attempt to change that.
He challenged the first-year students to manage their time well so as to learn effectively to improve their knowledge and skills.
“Report for class at the right time, sleep when you are supposed to sleep and read your books when you are expected to do so. If you are always late in whatever you do, it will become your character and definitely will not take you far in life,” Mr Bukari declared.
At the Navrongo Senior High School, only 98 out of the 630 students had reported to school.
The school declared 615 places for first-year students, but the Computerized School Placement System placed 630 students there.
Management could not tell the media whether the school has the capacity to accommodate all the students.
According to the headmistress of the Navrongo Senior High School, Francisca Yezura, the school received 20 percent of the funds needed to implement the free SHS on Monday, September 11, 2017 as promised, as well as core text books for the students.
Sandema Secondary-Technical School declared 700 places for first-year students, but the Computerized School Placement System placed 458 students there.
Out of this, a total of 394 students have been assigned classrooms and dormitories.
So far, the Upper East Region has not recorded any major hitches in the implementation of the free SHS policy.
<<Print>>