Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has urged authorities of the Tamale Senior High School to make a conscious effort at improving the school’s performance at the West African Senior School Certificate Examination.

He said though the School currently has a high percentage pass, there is still room for improvement.

Dr. Bawumia said, this is a key requirement in re-establishing the School among the elite of the Senior Secondary Schools in the country.

Speaking at the launch of the School’s 70th anniversary under the theme; “Leading Secondary Education in Northern Ghana,” the Vice President said for the School to be more impactful and continue to respond to the very high expectations that have informed its inception, a carefully thought through strategy and plan of investment in personnel and facilities will be required.

He said government will be ready to support this course, adding that they will be doing this as part of a broader national vision and strategy of the President for repositioning the entire educational system to produce a critical mass of assertive and empowered Ghanaian students, equipped with the relevant skills for socio-economic transformation.

The Vice President added that the President’s vision has resulted in one of the most fundamental reforms in the school system to be carried out in the country.

He said the reform programme is anchored on the interventions that will leverage Science, Engineering, Mathematics and Technology (STEM) to prepare the population to become active participants in the fourth industrial revolution.

Dr. Bawumia added that a strong national STEM programme will develop learners with 21st century skills like creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration which are required to drive the country into economic prosperity.

The Vice President noted that at the basic level is, the B- STEM programme under which essential equipment, including; robotic, electronic, computers, projectors among others, are to be provided.

He said the Ministry of Education is in the process of setting up eleven model state-of-the-art never-seen-before STEM Senior High Schools across the country and each will be equipped with twelve laboratories that can rival any such schools anywhere in the world, adding that at least nine of these schools are close to completion while many are more than 90 percent complete.

He added that as part of the plan, a STEM pathway will be established in some existing Senior High Schools which will benefit from additional full laboratories. Tamale Senior High School is one of the beneficiary schools.

The Vice President added that the road infrastructure in the education ridge is being upgraded. And for the first time in the history of the education enclave, the road network is being asphalted.

"We started in Tamasco so I don't want the others to think we are only doing Tamasco, in fact, all educational institutions on the ridge namely; Tamale Technical University,  Bagabaga  College of Education, and Tamale College of Education in addition to Tamale Senior High School, shall benefit from asphalted roads on the education enclave" he said.

He said clearly the education ridge is now being fixed after several years of neglect.

The Vice President said it was a great opportunity to acknowledge the contributions of very generous state and cooperate sponsors who have been part of the journey of Tamasco so far.