The Minister of Education, Matthew Opoku Prempeh, has disclosed why the ministry chose young Ghanaian actor Abraham Attah as an ambassador for government’s flagship programme, Free Senior High School.
Dr. Opoku Prempeh, spoke to the media after a short ceremony to unveil Abraham Attah for the role on Thursday, June 22, 2017, at the Ministry of Education in Accra.
“We chose him because he is popular and has achieved a lot in what he does,” he noted.
He was also thankful to Abraham for accepting to take up the task.
“If I look around and today I see my younger brother who has attained much fame than myself, who has decided to to support the government in this way, I can only say thank you,” he stated.
“You are a mentor to a lot of people. You have achieved what only few people would achieved at your age and we only pray that God blesses you to be a beacon for this country and to support us,” the Minister added.
When asked what Abraham would be doing as ambassador for the programme, Dr. Opoku Prempeh said “he will do what ambassadors do. He will talk about Free SHS.”
The Free SHS policy is one of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government’s flagship policy programmes that helped it win power in the December, 2016 polls.
The party popularized the program in the run up to the 2012 elections, but could not win power then to implement it.
Having successfully won the elections in 2016, led by Nana Akufo-Addo, the party announced that it will fully roll out the program this year. President Akufo-Addo, in an address at Okuapeman School in the Eastern Region in February 2017, announced that the program will commence from September 2017.
According to him, it will cover the full fees of students who attend public Senior High Schools across the country.
“By free SHS, we mean that, in addition to tuition which is already free, there will be no admission fees, no library fees, no science centre fees, no computer lab fees, no examination fees, no utility fees; there will be free textbooks, free boarding, and free meals, and day students will get a meal at school for free,” Akufo-Addo said.
The young actor has already distinguished himself by winning the ‘Marcello Mastroianni Award’ for Best Male Lead Young Actor in the hit movie ‘Beast of No Nation’.
He has also been recently recognised for his excellent academic performance at his new school, Cheshire Academy in the United States of America.
Abraham Attah, 15, got into the limelight when he played ‘Agu’ in the movie ‘Beast of No Nations.’
In 2016, it was announced that he had been cast in the upcoming Marvel film Spider-Man: Homecoming.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
