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The Minister for Education, Matthew Opoku Prempeh, has given the assurance that the Akufo-Addo government will not be distracted in its determination to ensure the successful implementation of the free senior high school policy.

“Let nobody think we don’t know where our priority is. We will work assiduously to ensure that the programme succeeds. It is better to borrow to fund free secondary education than to borrow to squander,” Dr Opoku Prempeh stated yesterday during the outdooring of Abraham Attah as the Free SHS Ambassador.

The event of outdooring of the young Ghanaian Hollywood actor as the free SHS ambassador was initiated and powered by E ON 3 Group, a business solutions and digital marketing company, the official Publicist of Attah, led by Richard Adjei Mensah Ofori-Attah, and sponsored by Rigworld International Services.

Abraham Attah, who pledged his full support for the free SHS programme, will serve as a role model for Ghanaian children across the country, especially those from poor homes, and encourage them to take advantage of government’s plan to make education accessible to all children.

His manager, Mawuko Kuadzi, on behalf of the Abraham Attah Foundation, donated some shoes from Toms to the ministry for distribution to deprived schools in the country

According to the Education Minister, it is easy for the well-to-do to make arguments about how the nation is going to get the required funds for the the free SHS programme, because they do not need government to fund the education of their wards, “but because of the poor mother who hitherto had no hope of giving his ward secondary education, we will do everything to ensure the programme succeeds.”

Dr Opoku Prempeh, affectionately called Napo, noted that the shortest route to bridging the gap between the rich and the poor is education, adding “it is also the shortest route to come out of the economic mess we find ourselves as a nation.”

In his view, with people from the northern sector having enjoyed free secondary education for nearly 60 years, the country has no reason to deny others access to free secondary education.

“Now, poverty is not peculiar to only the north; it is everywhere,” the Education Minister, who is also the Member of Parliament for Manhyia South, stressed.

He added that it was wise on the part of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to take the decision to use the greater chunk of the nation’s oil money to fund the education of the majority than to use on capacity building for the few.