Two thousand three hundred Senior High School students have been granted scholarships by government under the secondary school improvement project.

This is the first batch of students to benefit from the project which is funded by the World Bank.

The secondary school improvement project is expected to improve access to education in under-privileged districts across the country.

Speaking at a presentation ceremony in Accra, Deputy Minister in charge of Tertiary Education, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa assured stakeholders of a successful and transparent scholarship scheme.

“Each beneficiary student will be entitled to an amount of approximately GHc2,000 per annum for three years,” Mr Ablakwa said.

He noted that, “You may also recall in the 2015 Government Budge and Economic Policy statement, government made provision to pay school fees for about 367,565 day students in our secondary schools as we commence the implementation of progressive free secondary education in the 2015/2016 academic year.”

The Deputy Minister opined that, “Students on the secondary education improvement project scholarship will not be eligible for the relief under the progressively free education scheme.”   

A total of 10,400 students are expected to benefit at the end of the programme.

According to Mr Ablakwa, the 10,400 will not “come under the progressive free senior high programme which starts in September this year.”

Some of the beneficiaries, who spoke to Joy News, thanked the government for the initiative.

In another development, five thousand (5000) laptops have been presented to the Greater Accra unit of Ghana Education Service for onward distribution to teachers across the country.

This is to fulfil government’s promise to supply 60,000 laptops to teachers. The laptops are however targeted at science and maths teachers.