The 2022 cohort of students who took the West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) achieved the best scores in the previous eight years, according to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
“Six (6) years on following the implementation of the Free Senior High School policy, which has guaranteed a minimum of Senior High School education for 1.7 million Ghanaian children, the highest such enrolment in our history, I can state, without equivocation, that I am very proud of the policy and its results thus far,” says President Akufo-Addo.
On Saturday, December 3, 2022, the President spoke at the Opoku Ware Senior High School’s 70th anniversary celebration. He stated that the third class of “Akufo-Addo graduates” WASSCE results from 2022 show that 60.39 percent of students scored A1 to C6 in English, up from 51.6% in 2016.
He pointed out that in Integrated Science, 62.45% of students recorded A1-C6 in 2022 as opposed to 48.35% in 2016, showing a modest decline from the 2021 pass rate of 65.70%.
President Akufo-Addo also noted that 71.51% of students achieved A1-C6 in social studies, compared to 54.55% in 2016, and that 61.39% of students achieved A1-C6 in mathematics, compared to 33.12% in 2016.
Lest we forget, the 2021 batch of students, who also obtained very commendable results, were the pioneers of the double track system, which elicited a lot of vilification and unfounded criticism on its introduction,” he said.
The President continued, “The 2022 results are the best of the last eight (8) years. Surely, there can no longer be any controversy about the validity of the Free SHS policy and its consequential measures. It is working, and working well.”
In his speech, President Akufo-Addo informed the audience, which included the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, and the Chairperson of the Council of State, Nana Otuo Sriboe II, that history and the experiences of developed nations have demonstrated that investing in youth education and skill development is the most effective way to build an opportunity-rich society and, thereby, secure the future of our country.
This, he said, is because “it is the people of Ghana, Ghanaians like you and I, and especially the youth of today, who are going to build Ghana. Without an educated populace, we cannot transition from the status of a developing to a developed nation.”
For this reason, President Akufo-Addo claimed that despite the country’s economic challenges, the Government has allocated even more resources for the execution of the Free SHS policy. The budget for Free SHS for this year, which is GH 2.96 billion, has increased by 28.6% from the GH 2.3 billion estimate for 2022.
The President urged all Ghanaians to support the budgetary measures that the Government has recommended in order to achieve the goal of restoring macroeconomic stability and encouraging inclusive growth while protecting the poor, just as he did at the Farmers’ Day Celebration, in these challenging times.
“I am optimistic the policies outlined in the 2023 budget will go a long way to address the economic challenges with which we are faced,” he added.
Adam Ibrahim
Adam is passionate about politics and issues that affect governance. As a writer, he channels his energies into writing on pertinent national and political issues for the good of the Ghanaian people.
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