Government's Interest Is To Educate Every Child - Information Minister

Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, the Minister of Information has said that government's priority and interest was to get every child educated in the country, which must be embraced by all Ghanaians.

He said government's decision to introduce the free Senior High School (SHS) system was to ensure that children from the JHS got the opportunity to progress to SHS, if their parents could not effort and asked Ghanaians to stop politicizing education.

The minister was speaking to the media in Tamale, where he threw more light on measures government was taking to improve education in the country and that “the NPP had the interest of the country at heart and would do things that would be in the interest of the nation”.

He said, Mr Ken Ofori Atta’s opinion did not stand in the way of Akufo-Addo's free SHS vision and asked the public to disregard the recent remarks by the Finance Minister that those who can afford school fees for their wards under the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy should be allowed to do so.

Highlighting on the Double Track System, which is expected to be implemented in Senior High Schools from September this year, the Information Minister said a lot of research and consultation were being done on the viability and feasibility of the policy before it was implemented.

He said, "the person whose vision we are driving is the vision of the president of the Republic of Ghana and the president of the Republic of Ghana’s vision is that every child who goes to secondary school goes for free.

He said, "we are focused in delivery our promises to the good people of Ghana and it is important not play politics with education"

Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, a Deputy Minister of Education, who took the media through the Double Track System said, the concept was an innovative strategy to ensure that, any child was not left out of education.

“The Double Track system is a stop-gap measure for the government to be able to build more infrastructure to accommodate the ever-growing student population in school", he said.