By: Evans Attah Akangla| ignewss|
The Government of Ghana has announced ongoing support for key education programmes, particularly the Free Senior High School and TVET initiatives, aimed at broadening access to secondary education across the country.
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Attah unveiled these commitments in the 2024 budget presented to parliament, themed “Pursuing Growth and Development within a Stable Macroeconomic Environment.”
Highlighting the progress made, the government disclosed its support for 448,000 first year SHS students, culminating in a total of 1.3 million beneficiaries for the 2022/2023 academic year.
Assurances were given to sustain and advance this transformative initiative in 2024, as outlined in the budget.
Moreover, the government pledged to continue easing the financial strain on families by upholding the capitation grant, ensuring improved access to quality basic education.
This commitment extended to the provision of feeding grants for 7,500 students in special schools and capitation grants for all public basic schools nationwide.
In a bid to support candidates, government said it has covered the registration fees for over 471,000 prospective candidates from public Junior High Schools for the BECE, ensuring their participation in the examination.
The Finance Minister affirmed government’s dedication to maintaining opportunities for quality basic education through the capitation grant in the upcoming year.
Additionally, the Finance Minister highlighted government’s substantial investment of over Ghc740 million in the school feeding programme, enabling the provision of one daily hot meal to 3.8 million pupils across more than 10,000 public basic schools.