Free SHS benefits 1.6 million students - President Akufo-Addo

A total of 1.6 million students have benefited from the Free Senior High School (FSHS) programme, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said on Tuesday.

He said since the programme's implementation began in 2017, his government had recruited 93,000 teachers nationwide to facilitate effective teaching and learning in beneficiary schools nationwide.

President Akufo-Addo said this in a speech read on his behalf at the 2021 Ghana Teacher Prize Award held in Sunyani on the theme: "Teachers Wanted: Reclaiming Teaching and Learning for a Human-Centered Recovery."

The National Teachers' Council, with support from the Ghana Education Service (GES), the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund), and other partners, organized the event to mark the World Teachers Day celebration.

World Teachers Day focuses on appreciating, assessing, and improving the world's educators and providing an opportunity to consider issues related to teachers and teaching.

Established in 1994, the day commemorates the anniversary of the adoption of the 1966 International Labour Organisation and UNESCO recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers, which is a standard-setting instrument that addresses the status and situations of teachers around the world.

President Akufo-Addo said the GES had recruited 40,000 teaching and non-teaching staff in 2021 and acknowledged the strenuous contributions of teachers in providing quality education amid the Coronavirus(COVID-19) pandemic.

He, therefore, assured of his government's commitment to enhance the general welfare of teachers for enhanced quality teaching for an improved standard of education in the country.