The current average student loan amount of GH₵2,250 a year cannot cover the cost of funding tertiary education in Ghana for just the first month of study, let alone the entire year; but students have no option but to manage.
However, GETFund is willing to support the average cost of a one-year foreign Masters scholarship worth GH₵400,000. “For GETFund to even conceive the idea of awarding foreign Masters’ scholarships in Ghana today is unconscionable,” stated Peter Anti, Executive Director of IFEST.
With the 2023 Gross Tertiary Enrollment (GTE) rate stated to be 19.2 percent amid a 34 percent secondary-tertiary transition rate, especially when Ghana is recording an unprecedented 60 percent WASSCE pass rate in Core Subjects, the Ministry of Education (MoE) must be concerned about the inability of senior high school graduates to further their education due to financial challenges.
The MoE must also be worried that Ghana’s set target to achieve 40 percent GTE by 2030 – as announced in 2018 – after five years has only moved up by three percent from the previous 16.97 percent.
“The decision to spend scarce education sector resources on foreign scholarships for Masters’ students who end up studying courses existing in Ghana is not only wasteful but does not represent prioritised spending in a sector with over 5,000 basic schools under trees, sheds and dilapidated structures in the 21st century,” Executive Director-Eduwatch Kofi Asare stated.
Foreign scholarships and ‘Value for Money’
A review of non-bilateral public foreign scholarships in Ghana indicates that over 95 percent of the programmes are not only available locally in Ghanaian universities but cost 20 times more to study abroad. This does not assure value for money and must be discouraged, in line with President Nana Akufo-Addo’s pledge to protect the public purse.
Why parliament must oppose the move
The CSOs have also called on parliament to issue an injunction on the move to stop GETFund, as it did not allocate such an expenditure in its 2024 budgetary allocation.
They explained that parliament, in March 2024, approved a GH₵3.9billion allocation to GETFund based on a specific distribution formula that did not include GETFund scholarships. Plans by GETFund to spend directly on foreign scholarships in 2024/25 are therefore outside approved expenditure items in the 2024 GETFund formula approved by parliament, and are thus illegal.
“We urge parliament to prevent GETFund from spending on foreign scholarships, not just because it is unapproved by parliament but also amounts to wasteful spending of taxpayers’ money,” they stated.
The CSOs have also urged the Minister for Education, Yaw Osei Adutwum, to instruct GETFund to cease the ongoing foreign scholarship application process.
Auditor-General on GETFund
It should be recalled that the Auditor-General, in the 2019 GETFund Performance Audit Report, recommended that GETFund abide by Section two (2b) of the GETFund Act, desist from administering foreign scholarships and rather transfer funds to the Scholarship Secretariat for administration of scholarships.
This recommendation of the Auditor-General, which has since 2020 been upheld by GETFund, must continue.
Credit: thebftonline.com