Former President John Dramani Mahama has promised to construct more Community Day Schools, to accommodate more students to solve the challenges posed by the Free Senior High School programme.
The project he initiated during his tenure as President, according to the flag bearer of the National Democratic (NDC), will now be sited in high urban populated areas.
Interacting with students of the Wisconsin International University College Wednesday, April 03, 2024, John Mahama noted that the purpose for the new establishments is also to expand and enhance Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education.
He noted that dormitory blocks are going to be attached to the E-blocks in the catchment areas to cater for students from outside the communities.
“In our efforts to expand access to education, we’ll revisit the initiative of Community Day Senior High Schools which were popularly called the ‘E-blocks’. These schools have been abandoned without any justifiable reason by the current administration. We are going to build more E-block community day schools in high urban population areas,” he noted.
He explained that they will utilise the available lands in the various schools to build the extra edifices since land acquisition in urban areas has become difficult.
John Mahama added that, “with the E-blocks that we have built in rural areas that have a wide catchment area, we will provide dormitory blocks so that children who come from outside where the community is, will have a place to stay while they learn.”
He also disclosed his government’s intention to expand the STEM education in all senior high schools across the country by refurbishing the Science Resource Centres in the various SHSs, whilst utilizing the modern labs in the E-blocks as the centres for the STEM centres.
According to Mahama, limiting STEM education to specific areas will not auger well for the country, the reason his administration has resolved to inculcate it into all spheres of the academic process.
“With the much-publicised problem militating against the successful implementation of the Free SHS programme, we intend to tackle them. With regard to STEM education, we are going to streamline mainstream STEM education into our educational system. We don’t believe in standalone STEM SHS like this administration is doing. We believe that to get a holistic training, even if you’re studying in the humanities, you need some form of Science and Maths with technical training.
“So, we are going to rehabilitate all the old Science Resource Centres and create them into STEM centres so that all the secondary schools can have access to STEM learning instead of a few secondary schools,” he remarked.
