Govt increases GETFund allocation to tertiary institutions - Prof. Yankah
The government has earmarked GH¢ 255.5 million, representing 32.33 per cent of the total Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) allocation, to expand access to tertiary education and accommodate the expected increase in demand due to the free Senior High School (SHS) policy.
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The policy, which is expected to commence in September, would increase enrollment in the SHS, and could consequently boost the demand for tertiary education, hence, the need to make provisions beforehand.
The Minister in charge of Tertiary Education, Professor Kwesi Yankah, made this known at joint graduation ceremony for the College of Health Sciences and the College of Education at the University of Ghana in Accra last Saturday.
Graduates
The graduation was part of the first of two sets of graduation ceremonies for students who completed their programmes in the 2016/2017 academic year. In all, 3,858 students were graduated from all four colleges of the university.
Prof. Yankah said the government had made plans geared towards improving the standards of education at the pre-tertiary level.
“To improve the quality of education at this level, the government has committed itself to reforming the curriculum at pre-tertiary level to focus on writing, arithmetic, reading and creative arts,” he said.
Review of Acts
Prof Yankah said the government had embarked on a “review of the legal, institutional and regulatory framework of our agencies to ensure that they are properly aligned to provide a clearer understanding of their functions and strengthen their mandate to perform efficiently.
“Specifically, the National Council for Tertiary Education Act 454 (1993) and the National Accreditation Board Act 744 (2007) are currently under review”, he added.
He further stated that the government had committed itself to the establishment of a research fund for the purpose of funding relevant and specific work in the institutions of higher learning
A draft bill for its establishment, he said, had been completed and consultations for stakeholder inputs were underway.
UG’s vision
In line with the university’s vision to become “a world class research intensive university”, the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof Ebenezer Oduro Owusu, said strategic teams had been formed towards achieving such a goal.
“The common motive of the strategic teams is to ensure resource mobilisation, create a university that has immense international visibility, and create an environment that is green to ensure the needed congenial atmosphere for teaching and learning is hugely provided” he said.
Prof. Owusu said some private companies had expressed interest in collaborating with the university to generate electricity supply through solar and biogas systems and develop a waste disposal system that would rely on separation of waste, as part of the green project.
Projects
He further stated the university had embarked on 15 projects, geared towards increasing its capacity to absorb more students.
The projects, he said, included the multi-purpose School of Performing Arts facility, new block for the School of Pharmacy, the Department of Nutrition and Food Science, the multi-purpose building for the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI), among other initiatives.
He appealed to the government to rescind its decision to deduct 34 per cent of the Internally Generated Funds (IGS) of all public universities, saying, “the university has not received clearance to employ full-time staff hence; a large chunk of the IGF goes towards paying critical staff that the university has taken on, to ensure that academic work is not negatively affected.”