By Adu Koranteng
So far, an amount of GHS32 million has been invested in scholarships out of which GHS12 million has been spent on private local tertiary education alone by the Akufo-Addo led New Patriotic Party government, the Registrar of Scholarships, Mr Kingsley Agyemang has disclosed.
The amount, used for the payment of the academic facility user fee of Ghanaian students in both private and tertiary institutions, is the first of its kind in the country.
“His Excellency the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo directed that out of the GHS32 million, GHS12 million should be used for private local tertiary funding,” Mr Agyemang said on Saturday at a press briefing.
Mr Agyemang explained that the categories of institutions who benefitted were students in Nursing Training Colleges, Colleges of Education, Technical and Vocational Universities, Polytechnics, University Colleges, Universities, Accredited post-Secondary School and other Diploma Award Institutes.
Private tertiary institutions
The Scholarships boss said the move by the President put to rest the notion that private tertiary institutions have not been given the needed attention by the government and have been left to their fate.
“This is indicative of the fact that His Excellency the President puts premium on education. He is carrying everybody along, both private and public universities. This is good news for our brothers and sisters in the local tertiary institutions,” he said.
With the establishment of the District Scholarship Review Committee, he said the “The Scholarship Secretariat worked with the various district assemblies to ensure that these good gesture from our President was effected to the benefit of all deserving students.”
2020/2021 academic year
Mr Agyemang further disclosed that for the 2020/2021 academic year, the Scholarships Secretariat and GET Fund have made a provision for Eighty Million Ghana Cedis (GHS80, 000,000.00) to cater for students in local tertiary institutions.
“What this means is that, the number of beneficiaries will increase to about 70 thousand students relative to the number of beneficiaries in the last academic year,” he said.
Other initiatives
He said the Akufo-Addo government has and will continue to introduce more policies to make education accessible to all.
He mentioned the decentralisation and digitisation of scholarships, research allowances for PhD students, the President’s Special Initiative to encourage the learning of the French language among tertiary institutions, as some of the innovative and definite policies that have been rolled out since 2017.
“Students should expect more goodies from the Akufo-Addo government. No one will be left behind. Another four years for the government means another four years of good policies for our students,” he said.
