Deputy Education Minister, John Ntim Fordjour(middle) at the ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of 21st Century Junior High School complexes at Abenase in the Ejisu Municipality.
The Deputy Minister of Education, John Ntim Fordjour, has announced that the government has made adequate funding available for all ongoing educational infrastructure projects in the country, including the 21st century model Junior High Schools.
He announced this at two separate ground-breaking ceremonies for the construction of two 21st Century Junior High School complexes in the Ejisu and Juaben municipalities of the Ashanti Region.
Rev. Ntim Fordjour explained that all the ten model Junior High Schools, which had been awarded on contract, were expected to be completed within ten months, assuring that the projects would not delay for any reason.
Education as priority
The first phase of the 1,200 students’ capacity school complexes for the two projects will cost Gh₵1.6 million each. They will have libraries, ICT facilities, laboratories, sickbay, teachers’ bungalow and other facilities to boost the teaching and learning of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
“Funding is already available for every project that we are cutting sod for. If one is probably comparing with the narrative of time past, for this government since 2017 that we took power, every education infrastructure that would be commenced would only be commenced when funding has been earmarked and budget approved for it,” he said.
The Deputy Education Minister also emphasised that the Akufo-Addo government prioritises education as a critical tool for the transformation of the nation, hence the huge investment being made in the sector.
According to him, the provision of modern education infrastructure is part of the nation’s education reforms and the 21st century model Junior High Schools projects are no exception.
“A time has come for us to review this. A time has come for us to improve upon this narrative. One of the surest effective strategies that we are employing to ensure that we cure the weakness at the secondary education level is to build infrastructure and equip it with all the facilities required to give true secondary school education to JHS pupils,” he noted.
Commendation
The Member of Parliament for Ejisu and Deputy Minister of Finance, John Kumah, lauded the government for the project, which, when completed, will go a long way to improve education development as well as the transformation of the lives of the people of the area and Ghana as a whole.
He also commended the traditional leaders in the area for providing 14 acres of land for the project and pledged to support the development of the municipality.
The Adontenhene of Abenase, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of Students Loan Trust, Nana Agyei Yeboah, was full of praise to the government for remembering the people of the area in the distribution of the national cake.
He said the traditional leaders were ready and would continue to support all government initiatives that stood the chance of turning around the fortunes of the people.
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