President Akufo-Addo has indicated that government is determined to ensure that the country’s young people acquire skills that would put them at par with their peers anywhere in the world. He said, “the 21st century is both a competitive one and the era of a century of science and technology. We must educate and equip our youth with the requisite skills to enable them to compete in today’s world.” The President stressed that “today, in Ghana, I am delighted to be able to say that education in the public sector is now free from Kindergarten to Senior High School, with the adoption of my government’s Free Senior High School policy.” Investments in Ghana’s educational system, he said, are a key priority for my government, and “we have ensured that a third of our nation’s budget is dedicated to educating our young people.” President Akufo-Addo made this known on Monday, when he delivered an address at the inaugural inter-generational dialogue at the Kempinski Hotel, in Accra. He told the gathering that a new standards-based curriculum, which has mathematics, science, reading, writing and creativity at its core, is being rolled out from kindergarten to Class 6 in primary schools this year. “All is set for the construction of 21 state-of-the-art Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) Centres this year in the regions of the country. Ten Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) centres are also being built around the country to provide support for the introduction of STEM into basic education, after the completion of a successful pilot phase,” he added. Akufo-Addo with Graca Machel, Chairperson of Global Peace The President told the gathering that he mastery of digital technology by the youth must be the compelling challenge for them if, indeed, they are to survive in this competitive, technological environment. “They have to survive. Technology is what helps us to make the world truly a global village, and enables once poor people to become prosperous, and scale up the value of their economic activities,” he added. Inter-generational dialogue The Accra dialogue is the first of one hundred inter-generational dialogues to be held in one hundred cities across the world, to establish a platform for the youth to interact with leaders, to reach a consensus on the  best approach towards developing our respective countries, to bring the views of the youth to bear on developmental issues, and to help create a better and prosperous future for us all. President Akufo-Addo was firm in his conviction that of the urgent, critical need to involve young people in decisions that affect them, adding that “we cannot talk about sustainable development without the active involvement of youth.” Having launched, last year, a youth competition dubbed “Africa Innovates for the SDGs”, which seeks to unleash the potential of the youth to contribute directly to the attainment of the SDGs, President Akufo-Addo told the gathering that he will soon award the five winners of this competition with a cash prize of the cedi equivalent of ten thousand dollars each to them help scale up their innovations towards the attainment of the SDGs.