President Nana Akufo-Addo has reiterated his administration’s commitment to education at the Global Education Summit in London.
According to the President, education remains top on his government’s agenda because an educated workforce is a critical component of nation-building and economic transformation.
“We’re spending some 23 per cent of our budget on education. It’s one of the highest on the continent, and we intend to ramp it up even more,†he said.
The President left Ghana on Tuesday, July 27, 2021, for the official event in the United Kingdom.
At the invitation of H.E. Uhuru Kenyatta, President of the Republic of Kenya and Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the Government of the United Kingdom, President Akufo-Addo led Ghana’s delegation to the Global Education Summit, which was held from July 28 to 29 in London.
‘The Global Education Summit: Financing GPE 2021-2025’ was a key moment for the global community to come together and support quality education for all children.
A centre-piece of the summit was the opportunity for leaders to make five-year pledges to support GPE's work to help transform education systems in up to 90 countries and territories
President Akufo-Addo also, at the invitation of the Founder/Chief Executive Officer of the Emerging Business Intelligence & Innovation (EBII) Group, attend as Special Guest of Honour, delivered the keynote address at the 2021 African Investments Risks and Compliance (IRC) Summit, on 30th July 2021 at the University of Oxford.
The President told the summit that introducing and implementing his administration’s flagship free Senior High School (SHS) policy has ensured that hundreds of thousands of young Ghanaians who previously, would have had their education truncated at the Junior High School level now have the opportunity to further their education.
According to him, the introduction and acceptance of the Free SHS policy promoted by his government, has expanded access to education dramatically, enabling hundreds of thousands of young men and women to go to Senior High School from all corners of our country.
“The policy has reversed decades of exclusion, which denied, on the average, one hundred thousand young men and women, annually, entry to senior high school education because of the poverty of their parents,†he said
The President was accompanied by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, MP; Minister for Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum and officials of the Presidency and Foreign Ministry.
The President will return to Ghana on Sunday, August 1 2021.