ASEPA’s boss Mensah Thompson writes.
1. Today at the launch of the NDC Youth Manifesto, the Flagbearer of the NDC H.E John Mahama made a promise to remove all academic fees of first year entrants into the Universities across the Country.
2. For clarity of thoughts, the promise is pretty simple, Free SHS has increased enrollment into our Senior High Schools, students who otherwise could not afford to go to SHS now can acquire Secondary Education.
3. In this era where the basic qualification to access most formal employments is a University Degree, it makes no sense to educate poor children free off charge and not offer an opportunity for them to access tertiary education with equal ease so they do not end up redundant and the resources the State spent on them at the SHS level going waste.
4. Apart from that there are so many instances where students with excellent grades are left stranded after school, and it has to take benevolent individuals to bring their situation to the attention of the general public and crowd funding sourced for them or affluent persons adopting to foot their bills to access further education.
5. John Mahama and the NDC says all this would be a thing of the past, once you complete SHS, all you have to do is to pass your exams, buy your forms for University, apply for a course of your choice. Once you gain admission, all your parents or guardians have to do is to buy your basic needs and the State would pay for the cost of your academic entrance fees.
6. What this would do is to ease the pressure on parents, parents can now spend their savings on providing basic needs and other expenses for their wards.
7. After the first year, underprivileged students whose parents or guardians cannot still afford the continuing fees, shall be enrolled unto the student loan trust fund and would supported through the remaining three years.
8. The question most people are asking is where would the money come from?
And before we answer that let’s look at how much it will cost.
9. The average cost of academic fees for the 2023/2024 academic year is about GHC2,200. Averagely between 120,000 to 140,000 students are admitted every year to our Universities. This would cost the State, about GHC275million to GHC350million every year to fund the Free Academic Entrance fees for first years.
10. At the current status of the Ghana Education Trust Fund, this would be 14-15% of GETfund revenue.
The good thing is the NDC has also promised to de-collateralize the GETfund, if the NDC successfully de-cap the GETfund, it would cost us a paltry 4% to fund this free academic entrance fees program for all first years.
11. In our estimation, this is a realistic promise that can implemented without any constraints.
At ASEPA-Ghana, we endorse this initiative that would ease the burden of parents and students as a whole.
We also believe this is the best way to ensure a collective benefit of the Ghana Education Trust Fund(GETfund) Levy which all pay as Citizens.
This if implemented properly would be one of the best social intervention policies ever introduced by any Government in the fourth Republic.
Signed:
Mensah Thompson
Executive Director, ASEPA
