JATI Board members meet Education minister

THE Minister for Education, Mr Alex Tetteh-Enyo, has pledged the ministry’s commitment to support high school students benefiting from the Life Education Assurance Programme (LEAP) initiated by Junior Achievers Trust International (JATI).
He expressed the belief that the programme, which was underwritten by the State Insurance Company (SIC), would serve as an early intervention to prevent students from dropping out from second cycle schools.
The minister said this when members of the board of JATI called on him to brief him on the operations of JATI and what they intended to achieve with the support of the ministry.
A Memorandum of Understanding had been signed by JATI and the then Ministry of Education, Science and Sports (MOESS) and the Ghana Education Service (GES) to ensure that the programme was implemented in all second cycle schools on a voluntary basis.
The main objective of the programme was to ensure that a student who was covered under the programme was given entrepreneurial training as well as uninterrupted education should his or her guardian pass away or become totally incapacitated as a result of an accident or illness.
The policy, according to the board members, would pay approved government fees submitted by the school authorities till the student complete the senior high school programme.
Mr Tetteh-Enyo commended them for their efforts in assisting the needy students, particularly orphans, and urged them to expand the programmes from the current 61 schools to cover studenst in other deprived schools.
He was optimistic that if the programme was administered well it would create career awareness in the youth, inculcate in them the need to stay in school as well as produce a new generation of business leaders with practical business experience.
The Deputy Minister of Education, Dr Joseph S. Annan, was of the view that the programme would lessen the pressure on Members of Parliament who were assisting deprived students in their constituencies.
The Board Chairman, Mr John Yaw Amankrah, who briefed the minister about JATI, outlined some of the programmes that were underway, which included a Student Company Achievers Forum, a JATI Business Hall of Fame and a Students Enterprise Fair where students brought their products and services under one platform to market them to the general public.
Other members of the board include the Chief Executive Officer of JATI, Mr Paul C. Yeboah, the Principal of Methodist University College and Chairman of the African Peer Review Mechanism Council, Professor S. K. Adjepong, the Country Director of American Airlines, Mr Ebow Paintsil, the Very Reverend Ama Afo Blay, former Director-General of the GES, a Senior Lecturer at the Ghana School of Law, Mr Opoku Agyemang, and the Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Atomic Energy, Professor Yaw Serfo-Armah.


Caption: (Sixth from left), the Minister for Education, Mr Alex Tetteh-Enyo, next to him from left is the Board Chairman of JATI , Mr John Yaw Amankrah and on his right is the Deputy Minister for Education, Dr Joseph S. Annan, surrounded by some Board Members of JATI in a group picture during the visit.