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6 things Mahama said about education [Infographic]

54,800 children in 4 regions have been enrolled into schools under the Compulsory Education program.

President John Mahama

1. Text books to be printed locally

He said last year he had insisted that all textbooks and exercise books must be printed in Ghana and the decision was yielding results.

Delivering the State of the Nation Address to Parliament yesterday, the President said about 1,400 jobs were being created through that initiative.

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2. Free education

54,800 children in 4 regions have been enrolled into schools under the Compulsory Education program.

This he said was is in fulfillment of a pledge made by government to absolve the cost of secondary education in Ghana.

The Ghana Education Service in 2015 had listed some of the schools that will benefit from the implementation of the progressive free SHS policy.

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They include:

Central Region – 27, 795 students in 54 schools

Western Region – 38, 751 in 56 Schools

Ashanti Region – 64, 430 from 102 schools

Northern    – 17, 648 students out of 45 schools

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Brong Ahafo  – 38, 751 from56 schools.

Upper East – 1,395 students out of 28 schools

Upper West – 877 students from 23 schools

Eastern  – 34,157 students out of 82 schools

Greater Accra – 52,664 consisting of 46 schools

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Volta  – 36,859 out of 88 schools

3. Two new Polytechnics to be established and transformed into tertiary universities

Two new universities are to be established at Donkorkrom in the Afram Plains area and Somanya in the Eastern Region, President John Dramani Mahama has said.

The new universities are part of government’s interventions to build a university in each region.

Highlighting the progress made in the education sector, the president said government was on course in transforming six polytechnics into universities.

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He also stated that there were plans for establishing an Islamic teacher training college in the country as part of measures to increase teacher trainee enrollment.

He also noted that interventions such as the removal of teacher trainee allowances and the quota system had led to increased enrollment in the colleges.

4. Teacher trainee development

Government has introduced a Teacher Professional Development programme to train teachers across the country.

The aim of this programme, the president said, is to polish the skills of about 95 percent of teachers at the basic level by 2020.

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The President also disclosed that about 10,000 school supplies have been distributed to some schools to be given to teachers trained in Information Communication Technology (ICT).

Over 30,000 teachers are expected to benefit from the initiative.

5. 200 Community SHS

With the construction of the 200 Community Day Schools in some districts across the country, Mr Mahama believes that 200,000 new places will be made available in the Senior High School system.

"I can report that 123 are currently being implemented and are at different stages of completion," he said.

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The community-based school intervention, he says is the biggest ever expansion in the history of secondary education in Ghana.

President Mahama said enrollment in tertiary education has increased by over 6 percent for universities and 8.9 percent in polytechnics.

6. Finance for teacher trainees

To assist teacher trainees to finance their education after the cancellation of the teacher trainee allowances, Mr Mahama said he has directed the Education Ministry to direct Student Loans Trust to register trainees on their campuses and disburse student loans to them.

"This new system allows us to reinvest in the education of the next generation of teachers and students and is a more sustainable way to support teacher trainees," he said.

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To expand access to teacher training in the country, government, the president said, has absorbed about five colleges of education into the public education stream. Two other private colleges will be absorbed as well in the Bong Ahafo and Ashanti regions.

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