A total of 411 out of the 465 candidates who scored grade A in all subjects at the 2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), were students from Ghana pioneering the Government’s free Senior High School (SHS) Programme.

Immediate past Minister of Education, Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh, at the fourth Session of the fifth Congregation of the University for Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) on Saturday, said 2020 became the only year 50 per cent of Ghanaian students scored A1 to C6 in all core subjects.

He said the feat vindicated the President’s commitment to free education - the lifeline to the nation’s growth, and must therefore be given the needed support.

“This clear testament to the vision of President Akufo Addo’s free SHS programme tells us that when we harness every child’s potential and put in the resources and hard work, we enrich our human resource base and put him or her on a path to progress and prosperity,” Dr Opoku Prempeh, who now heads the Energy Ministry, stated.

He said the potency of the programme was sure to exert pressure on tertiary institutions, and urged them to endeavour to harness the capacities of the “fine young minds.”

The Minister said as Universities such as UHAS strove to become world-class institutions, they must be considered as national assets helping to provide quality workforce.

He thus said tertiary institutions must admit students from all parts of the nation, and that “there should be no discrimination in the recruitment of faculty, students or management,” he said.

Ghana has been leading the WASSCE score for the past six years running, and the 2020 result doubled the previous year’s count of 220 8As.

Nigeria, Ghana’s long contender, claimed the remaining of the 2020 straight As.