He explained that a school with a consistent zero to 10 per cent pass rate should put together inter­vention programmes to ensure that majority of their students found opportunities for further studies rather than becoming a liability to their parents and society due to their inability to pass their exam.

He explained that closing the schools down would help save the nation the huge financial losses being incurred by the government as a result of the existence of the school so that the affected students would be redistributed to other nearby schools so they could con­tinue their education.

Dr Adutwum made the remark at the weekend when he addressed the members of the Conference of Assisted Senior High Schools (CHASS) and Principals of Techni­cal and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions in Kumasi.

The meeting which is an annual event was to share with them the current state of education in the country, discuss new development in the sector and answer questions on issues affecting them.

The meeting which was in two batches saw all SHS heads attend­ing on Saturday while Principals of TVET institutions across the country also attended on Sunday.

He lauded the heads for their roles in the transformation of ed­ucation in the country and pledged to continue providing the needed resources and urged them to work very hard to ensure that they at­tained the right results.

Dr Adutwum also cautioned the heads to desist from preventing first year students from enrolling due to the fact that some items on their prospectus had not been procured.

He indicated that “there is no way any student should be turned away from school because the parents have not been able to procure some items on the school’s prospectus, at least, let them come to the school and the rest could be procured later”.

The Education Minister lament­ed the addition of many other unapproved items on the school’s prospectus which in the long run lead to the bloating of the prospec­tus for first year students.

Dr Adutwum who is also the Member of Parliament for Bo­somtwe advised the heads not to do anything that would discourage or prevent any student from having access to education.

He urged the heads to let it be their goal of doing everything pos­sible to create enabling an environ­ment for students to study and not to disturb them from their studies.

The Deputy Minister for Edu­cation, in-charge TVET sector, Ms Gifty Twum-Ampofo, reminded the principals to ensure that stu­dents were well-equipped for the job market and also let the schools pass through them and not the stu­dents passing through the school.

She also urged the principals to spend time enhancing their capaci­ty through reading relevant courses and books to support their effort at getting the best training for their students.

Presentations were made by the leadership of the Ghana Education Service (GES), National Education Leadership Institute (NELI), Free Senior High School Secretariat, Funds and Procurement Manage­ment Unit (FPMU) and Ghana TVET Service.