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Madam Justina Owusu-Banahene, the Bono Regional Minister on Friday assured no qualified student would be denied access to the government’s Free Senior High School (FSHS) programme and asked parents and guardians to remain calm.

The FSHS, the Regional Minister emphasised had come to stay, saying the government was determined to address emerging challenges to strengthen its implementation to benefit the larger population.

Mad. Owusu-Banahene gave the assurance when she visited the Sunyani Senior High school (SHS) and the St James Seminary/SHS to acquaint herself with the ongoing Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS).

Interacting with parents and guardians who had come to the schools to seek admission for their children and wards, Mad Owusu-Banahene told them to have hope in the government, saying all challenges confronting the CSSPS would be addressed.

She said quality education remained a key indicator to measure the success of one’s life and the government would thus ensure that all students qualified for the SHS were admitted to benefit from the FSHS programme.

Mad Owusu-Banahene advised the parents to draw closer and monitor the movements of their children so that they would not join bad peers as they gained admission to the SHSs.

She said the FSHS programme would be useful and successful only when students concentrated on their studies and passed their examinations well and asked them to strive hard and justify the programme by obtaining the best grades in their internal and external examinations.

The Regional Minister said the implementation of the FSHS was not a justification or excuse for parents and guardians to deny their children and wards basic educational and material needs that would make life comfortable for them to stay and learn in the schools.

“We must not regard the boarding school as a place to dump our children and wards, but rather connect well with teachers and school authorities to know the academic interest, performance and character of our children,” Mad Owusu-Banahene told parents.

“By so doing we would motivate and empower teachers to facilitate the proper upbringing and development of our children and wards so that they would achieve high academic laurels.”

Mad Owusu-Banahene reminded the parents that the future of the country depended much on the younger generation, hence the need to support teachers to instill discipline in the students and mould them well to become useful adults to occupy responsible positions.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere at the two SHSs was calm, but the Ghana News Agency (GNA) learnt that poor internet connectivity was frustrating the CSSPS.