300 pupils of Akweley Nkwanta St. Mary’s Anglican Basic A School in the Awutu Senya East Municipality have been enrolled onto the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) through an initiative led by Pisgah International Development and Relief Services.

The initiative, carried out in partnership with the Municipal Education Directorate, aims to provide access to affordable healthcare for vulnerable children, particularly those attending schools operating under the shift system.

St. Mary’s Anglican Basic A, one of 15 schools within the municipality, runs such a system with nearly 3,000 pupils attending classes in alternating sessions.

While the arrangement helps accommodate more schoolchildren, it often makes monitoring attendance and welfare difficult especially when pupils fall sick.

According to Mr. Owusu, Headmaster of the school, about 75% of the pupils lack active health insurance, which makes it challenging to manage cases of illness during school hours.

Teachers, he noted, sometimes pay for medical treatment out of their own pockets when students need care.

Pisgah International’s intervention, which saw 47.5% of the beneficiaries being girls, is part of its broader School Children Health Improvement Programme (Project SCHIP).

The initiative supports Ghana’s progress toward Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.8, which seeks to achieve universal health coverage by 2030.

Latoya Agatha Abbey, Ghana Programme Coordinator for Pisgah International, emphasized that this intervention is only the beginning.

She also called for increased support in providing school desks, reproductive health education, and awareness programmes for girls, aligning with SDG 5, promoting gender equality and empowering women and girls.