COVID-19: Government absorbs WASSCE registration fees for Akufo-Addo graduates
The Government of Ghana (GoG) has absorbed the WASSCE registration fees of 313,837 Akufo-Addo graduates who will write this year’s WASSCE examination, President Akufo-Addo has announced.
President Akufo-Addo proclaimed this in his 12th televised address to the nation on Sunday, June 21, when he was updating the country on measures being put in place ahead of June 22 school reopening for final year students and form 2 Gold track senior high school students.
According to His Excellency Akufo-Addo, an amount of GH¢ 75.4 million will be spent on the payment of the WASSCE registration fees for the students.
He furthered that Form 3 students now referred to as ‘Akufo-Addo graduates’ are the first batch of beneficiaries of the Akufo-Addo led government Free Senior High School policy started in September 2017 to write the WASSCE exams.
Following the permission for schools to reopen tomorrow Monday, June 22, the Akufo-Addo assured that the “government is determined to protect the lives of the 800,000 students, teachers, and non-teaching staff, who will be returning to school from tomorrow. I will be the last person to put the lives of the ‘Akufo-Addo graduates’ at risk.”
As part of measures to curb and prevent the spread of the virus, the President said a maximum of twenty-five students will be permitted in each class.
He added that “all day students in schools with boarding houses will be resident in these boarding houses, whilst day students, in schools without boarding facilities, will commute from home, and will be required to adhere to enhanced hygiene protocols; eating in dining halls will be inappropriate numbers; and no visitors to the schools will be allowed”.
Also, there will be no mass gatherings and no sporting activities. Religious activities, under the new protocols, will be permitted. Social distancing and the wearing of face masks are obligatory in our schools.
He tasked the management of Senior High Schools to use one dormitory as an isolation centre, in the event of a student falling sick, adding that each SHS has been mapped to a health facility, and care will be provided to the sick by nurses assigned to these schools.
“Through the National Food and Buffer Stock Company, enough food supplies have been distributed to all schools. The government is also making available 350 buses and 840 pickup vehicles to Senior High Schools that did not receive vehicles in 2016.
READ ALSO: Dormitories to be used as COVID-19 isolation centres in SHSs – Akufo-Addo
He furthered that the Government of Ghana for the first time in history will absorb the WASSCE examination fees of the 313,837 SHS 3 students who will sit for the exam. GH¢75.4 million will be spent on this.
Source: Georgeweb.org
