By Victoria Agyemang
Saltpond (C/R), March 19, GNA – Reverend John Ntim Fordjour, the Deputy Minister of Education has charged society to help female students to redefine the meaning of the Girl-Child to help break traditional stereotype.
He said the government’s efforts to channel huge resources and investment into education was to ensure an empowered society.
Rev. Fordjour made the call at the 63rd anniversary of Mfantseman Girls Senior High School at Saltpond.
The anniversary hosted by the 1998 year old students group was on the theme: “Repositioning Mfantseman Girls for Academic Excellence: The role of stakeholders”.
He tasked female students to rise up to break the status quo and reposition themselves for academic excellence and societal impact.
The Government Rev. Fordjour noted had for seven years, worked to help remove systemic and economic barriers that bedeviled secondary education for some groups of people with the introduction of the free Senior High School (SHS) policy.
Hence, it was the students’ responsibility to apply themselves for excellence, discipline and innovations and realize the need to strive harder to give back to their alma mater and society in general.
Rev Fordjour stated that students’ enrollment have increased from 830,000 to about 2.5 million, adding that the free SHS policy and the Training Vocational Engineering Technical (TVET) policy rolled in the country, was the game changing policy by the government.
It was time to collectively work to sustain the policy to guarantee the Ghanaian child access to quality education, he added.
The Free SHS, he indicated must not be politicized in the quest to improve education because its motive was to ensure no child was left behind but had the opportunity to realize their dreams and aspiration in the country.
Rev Fordjour cautioned persons politicizing the policy that they should not downplay the future of the young generation.
He advised the students to justify Government’s investment in them to sustain the enviable academic excellence their school offer.
The Deputy Minister pledged Government’s continuous effort to support schools to provide conducive atmosphere for teaching and learning in the country.
He further assured of government’s commitment to ensure the completion of all uncompleted projects on campus to ensure education was improved for the betterment of all.
Some teachers, students and outstanding personalities were awarded and acknowledge for their excellent performance.
They received; certificates, plaques, television sets and undisclosed sums of money.
GNA