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Thursday 16th January, 2020
Free SHS is our most successful programme – Education Minister
By Emmanuel Todd/Eric Appah Marfo, GNA
Accra, Jan 16, GNA - Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the Minister of Education, has scored the Free Senior High School (SHS) education policy as the most successful programme of the ministry over the past three years.
Since the policy was introduced in 2017, he said the education ministry was on top of affairs, but described the challenges that came along with its implementation as "simple, clear and minimum."
Dr Prempeh said this during a panel discussion on the topic: "Protecting the vulnerable through enhanced access to education, jobs and social services," on the second Day of Ghana Results Fair 2020.
The three-day national fair was on the broad theme: "Delivering results for our citizens: A work in progress."
Ghana's education ministry is undergoing reforms in all of its five sectors: Basic education, senior high, tertiary, teacher reforms and, technical and vocational education and training.
Dr Prempeh said the reforms required much attention and input for national economic development.
Before the Free SHS programme, he said about 100,000 Junior High School graduates received placements in various Senior High institutions, but could not afford the cost, while a high number of those enrolled dropped out along the line.
He said the double track system was a temporary intervention and was not a means to compromise the quality of secondary school education.
Currently, 398 out of 721 schools run the double track system due to high intake, but the minister said contact hours also increased to 1,134 hours from 1,080 to make teaching and learning more effective.
In the previous system, he said students stayed on vacation for five months during each academic year, but with the double track, they stayed for six months to make up the lost time.
He added: "The programme is running successfully and all qualified students deserve to be in school as quality is being enhanced progressively."


WARNING: The procedure in this document has been created and verified by Puppet's professional services engineers. It has not gone through the usual quality assurance process. Before undertaking any of these procedures, we strongly advise that you review them thoroughly and test them in non-production environments. Beyond validation from our professional services engineers, Puppet does not offer support for this procedure outside of a Professional Services engagement.
Even if you don't have root privileges, you can configure an external PostgreSQL database to work with PE, including configuring SSL between PE and the external PostgreSQL database. This allows you to use services such as Amazon RDS PostgreSQL, where non-root users usually don't have access to the file system or the ability to manage certificates.
Users without root access can configure PE and external PostgreSQL.
NOTE: If you use the web-based installer, remember to choose the external PostgreSQL option. Skip the instructions for creating PostgresSQL databases, because you have already done this in Steps 1 and 2.
Create the external PostgreSQL instance, and, if you haven't already, retrieve the necessary certificate chain and credentials from your database administrator.
Log in to the external PostgreSQL instance with the client of your choice.
In this step, you will establish an SSL connection between PE and your external PostgreSQL instance.
Log in to the nodes assigned to the PE master, PE console, and PuppetDB components and stop the Puppet agent service.
Note: For a split install, stop the Puppet agent service on the Puppet master, PE console, and PuppetDB nodes. For a monolithic install, you only need to stop the service on the Puppet master.
Create a location on both the PE console and PuppetDB nodes (or on the Puppet master in a monolithic install) to store the CA cert from the external PostgreSQL instance (for example, /etc/puppetlabs/puppet/ssl/).
Transfer the CA cert from the external PostgreSQL instance to the directory you location you just created.
Note: In the examples below is the path to the certificate on your system.
a. In the console, click Classification, and select the PE Infrastructure node group.
b. On the Classes tab, find the class puppet_enterprise, and from the Parameter list, select database_ssl.
c. Set the database_ssl parameter to "true".
d. Click Add parameter, and commit changes.
a. In the console, click Classification, and in the PE Infrastructure node group, select the PE PuppetDB node group.
b. On the Classes tab, find the class puppet_enterprise::profile::puppetdb, and from the Parameter list, select database_properties.
"//<POSTGRESQL_SERVER_HOSTNAME>:5432/pe-activity?ssl=true&sslfactory=org.postgresql.ssl.jdbc4.LibPQFactory&sslmode=verify-full&sslrootcert=<PATH TO EXTERNAL POSTGRESQL CA CERT>"
"//<POSTGRESQL_SERVER_HOSTNAME>:5432/pe-classifier?ssl=true&sslfactory=org.postgresql.ssl.jdbc4.LibPQFactory&sslmode=verify-full&sslrootcert=<PATH TO EXTERNAL POSTGRESQL CA CERT>"
"//<POSTGRESQL_SERVER_HOSTNAME>:5432/pe-rbac?ssl=true&sslfactory=org.postgresql.ssl.jdbc4.LibPQFactory&sslmode=verify-full&sslrootcert=<PATH TO EXTERNAL POSTGRESQL CA CERT>"
On the PE console node (or on the Puppet master in a monolithic install), reload the pe-console-services by running service pe-console-services reload.
On the PE console and PuppetDB nodes (or on the Puppet master in a monolithic install), start the Puppet agent service by running puppet resource service puppet ensure=running.
On the PE console node (or on the Puppet master in a monolithic install), kick off a Puppet run.