Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Jomoro, Mr Ernest Kofie says enrolment in schools in the municipality, has risen to 8,335since 2017 as a result of the Free Senior High School (SHS) flagship programme in the country.
According to him, the enrolment in the two senior high schools in the area was 3,653 in 2019 as against 2,340 in 2018 and 2,342 in 2017, making a total of 8,335 students.
He called on Ghanaians to hail President Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo for the bold initiative to implement the policy despite the challenges, which warranted public criticisms at its inception.
The MCE for Jomoro, Mr. Kofie said this at a Meet the Press series organised by the Assembly at Half Assini to showcase its performance in the implementation of government’s policies and programmes since January 2017.
According to him, about 1.2 million Ghanaian children across the country were now benefiting from the Free Senior High School programme.
He said the programme was bridging the gap between the poor and rich adding, that “today, parents who couldn’t send their children to secondary schools are now doing so because of the free SHS programme.
He said in 2017 the Government spent GH¢394,372 on the Free SHS beneficiaries’ schools adding that the Government 2018 also spent GH¢232,129.
Mr Kofie added that this year, the Government has already spent GH¢267,342 and was hopeful that more would be added in the near future.
He, urged parents in the area to embrace the Free Senior High School flagship programme and advised the beneficiary students to learn hard and pass well to shame those critics of the programme.
He was optimistic that the first batch of the Free SHS students who would be writing their final exams in 2020 would pass well.
The MCE, lauded the Member of Parliament for the area, Mr Paul Essien for supporting the Free SHS students through the distribution of stationary and trunks among others.
He charged the people of the Municipality to vote massively for President Akufo-Addo in 2020 to sustain the Free SHS flagship programme.
Under scholarship scheme, the MCE commended the Central Government for decentralizing the Government Scholarship Secretariat.
He said this year, 300 applications were received and out of the number, 55 were selected.
Thirty-four males and 21 females are benefiting and pursuing different Programmes in some tertiary institutions in the country for 2019/2020 academic year.
He said the Assembly was spending GH¢80,747.00 on the beneficiaries and would increase the number in the next academic year.
Under the Nation Builders Corps (NABCO), he said 289 were benefiting from the flagship programme.
He said out of the total number, 199 were males and 77 were females.