President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has described as “unmerited and unfounded”, criticisms that were levelled against the double track system which became a consequence of the Free Senior High School Policy.
The President says the West Africa Senior High School Examination (WASSCE) results obtained by the two graduating batches of the policy so far are better, compared to those obtained by students prior to his assumption of office as President.
Speaking at the 61st Conference of the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) at the Achimota School in Accra Wednesday, October 11, 2023, the President said the 2022 batch of “Akufo-Addo graduates” have provided the best senior high school results so far in the past 8 years.
“The 2022 results of the first batch of the Akufo-Addo graduates shows 60.39% of students recording A1 to C6 results in English as opposed to 31.6% in 2016. 62.45% recording A1 to C6 in Integrated Science in 2022 as opposed to 48.35% in 2016 with the 2022 result being a spike regression from the 2021 pass rate of 65.7%. 61.39% recording A1 to C6 in Mathematics as compared to 33.12% in 2016 and 71.51% recording A1 to C6 in Social Studies as compared to 54.55% in 2016,” he read out.
According to the President, the examination outcomes are commendable and should vindicate the double track system from the unmerited criticisms from a section of Ghanaians.
The President further spoke about fears which were raised about the Free SHS policy compromising the quality of education. From the statistics he provided, the President noted that despite the increase in enrollment of students, the quality, rather than the fears of decline, improved.
He said “the results of each batch of the graduates whom with your indulgence are called the ‘Akufo-Addo graduates’, have surpassed those chalked in 2016 prior to my assumption of office. Quality, despite the increase in nominal figures, which now stands at 1.4 million students has not decline. On the contrary, it has improved and I want to use this opportunity to thank you warmly, members of CHASS for the impressive results seen in the WASSCE examination since the commencement of the free senior high school policy in September 2017.”
“The 2021 batch of students who also obtained commendable results were the pioneers of the double track system which illicit a lot of unmerited vilification and unfounded criticism on its introduction. The 2022 results are the best of the last 8 years. Surely, there can no longer be any controversy about the validity of the Free SSHS policy and its consequential measures,” the President added.
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