'Free SHS must succeed Fund' initiative launched

The Omanhene of the Assin Owirenkyi Traditional Area, Ehunabobrim Prah Agyensaim VI, has launched a fund called, “Free Senior High School Must Succeed Fund" to mobilise public support for the government’s free SHS policy.

The initiative he said, would first appeal to a million Ghanaians to demonstrate their love for the country by voluntarily contributing GHC4,000 each, representing the cost of educating one student through the three year senior high school education.

He said a team made up of eminent people would appeal to all Past and Present Staff of the Office of the President, Staff of Office of the Vice President, former Heads of State, all Ministers and Speakers, Deputies, Officers of Parliament and Members of Parliament

Others category of people who fall under the one million people would be all Past and Present State Agencies Senior Officers, including Chief Justices, Members of the Judiciary, Members of the Bar Association, all Senior Civil Servants and Senior Journalists.

Speaking at a media launch in Accra, Nana Agyensaim said the initiative, which was his proposal to enhance government’s Free Senior High School programme, would be formally launched on February 1, 2019.

For the rest of the citizenry, he hinted that plans were underway to enable people to voluntary contribute GHS 50.00 per month towards the initiative.

“For over a year of debate on this policy, which mercifully all political parties seem to support, too much time has been spent on the challenges associated with the Free Senior High School Policy and comparatively little time given to the solutions to overcome these obvious challenges,” he noted.

Nana Agyensaim said lawyers were in the process of preparing a Trust Deed for the Fund and contacts had been made with Most Reverend Charles Gabrial Palmer-Buckle, Metropolitan Archbishop of Cape Coast and Sheikh Dr Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu, the national Chief Imam to be the two Trustee to implement the obligations.

As his commitment, he said he would contribute an amount, which would see two students through SHS and appealed to those who had the means to contribute towards the education of at least one person in SHS.

Nana Agyensaim remarked that the future of the country depended on patriotism and called on all those who had, at one time or another, benefited from progressive national policies and programmes, to help build a better future for the youth.

He said the elimination of financial obstacles to good quality education was the most important investment the nation could make for it younger generation, adding that, the free SHS policy represented a great vision.

Nana Agyensaim appealed to Ghanaians to work towards the success of the programme and charged parents who could afford to pay their children’s fees at the SHS to voluntarily do so in support of the government.

He urged Ghanaians to commit themselves to be patriots, stressing: “We must be committed patriots, not just spectators, and I open this drive to all Ghanaians to join us make the free SHS policy a great success.”