The CEO of Cosmos School in Accra has called on government to take a second look at the decision to exclude private institutions from the Free Senior High School (SHS) programme. Michael Nartey said as private stakeholders in the educational sector, some of them are disappointed the private institutions were not considered. “We thought that government should have considered the structures of the very good private schools and add them to the programme because we are also rendering a service to the community,” he said. He made this appeal at the 40th speech and prize-giving ceremony of Cosmos School, under the theme, ‘Building Godly character and shaping lives: the Cosmos experience.’  Celebrating 40 years of existence, this year's event highlighted the importance of shaping the minds and character of pupils. In September 2018, the Conference of Heads of Private Secondary Schools (CHOPS) faulted government for excluding the private sector in the implementation of the policy. It said if government had consulted and included the heads of the private secondary schools, it would not have been necessary to run the double-track system. CHOPS argued that since the private schools had the capacity and infrastructure, they would have been able to take on the excess number of students. Reiterating calls for inclusion, Mr Nartey said they are not listened to and appealed to be considered for the policy. According to him, most of the well-endowed private schools have better infrastructure and facilities than the public schools taking part in the free SHS policy. The educationist could not hide his joy over government’s decision to reform the sector, although he believes the focus should be on the quality of teachers.  “One key ingredient it [government] should take a look at in order to transform education in this country is the quality of teachers,” he stated.  He said teachers make a school what it is so there is the need to take a look at those who get admitted into the training colleges.  “We also need to look at teacher development after training, supervision and control,” Mr Nartey said.