GETFUND MUST STAY FOCUSSED

WHILE delivering the keynote address at the opening of the 59th Annual New Year School at the University of Ghana, Legon, yesterday, Professor Emmanuel Adow-Obeng, expressed concern over the financial demands being made on the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund).
He said the fund was under intense pressure from demands which the fund was originally not supposed to support and called for a preservation of its original purpose.
Another concern of Prof. Adow-Obeng was that the GETFund was gradually becoming the only source of funding tertiary education in Ghana, when in reality it was supposed to supplement government funding.
The vice-chancellor couldn’t have been more succinct in his concerns over the gradual diversification of the GETFund from its original objective. It is common knowledge that Members of Parliament (MPs) are allocated some funds from the GETFund to support education (not tertiary) in their constituencies. There is also a proposal to use part of it to support youth employment under the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP).
These demands on the fund were never part of the original objective for the setting it up and, if things continue this way, the fund’s support to its original benefactors will dwindle.
Since the establishment of our universities, successive governments have not given them the needed support to help them to expand. This state of affairs could be partly due to the frequent downturns in our economy over the years.
This has resulted in the deterioration of the original infrastructure in our universities, while facilities are bursting at the seams.
It is this rather pathetic situation of our public universities that the GETFund came to save, even though the fund itself was not initially welcomed by all.
A visit to the campuses of all our public tertiary institutions confirms that the GETFund is really our saviour. There are structures being put up all over the place to enhance teaching and learning in those institutions.
For us, the challenge now is for the government to play a lead role in getting the support of all stakeholders — parents, communities, corporate bodies, and all who are interested in quality manpower — for our tertiary institutions.
Elsewhere, university authorities do not concern themselves with residential facilities on their campuses. Indeed, the statutes of our universities indicate that they are centres of teaching, learning and research.
Those of our compatriots who advocate free education, even up to the tertiary level, must re-examine their stance, because it is something the state will find difficult to attain.
The 1992 Constitution says among other things, in Article 38, (3) that: “The state shall, subject to the availability of resources, provide — (a) equal and balanced access to secondary and other appropriate pre-university education, equal access to university or equivalent education, with emphasis on science and technology.”
The DAILY GRAPHIC believes that whatever the present challenges facing the GETFund, it has been able to ease pressure on the university authorities for both residential and academic facilities.
We, therefore, counsel the government, the Administrator of the GETFund and the beneficiaries of the fund to get together and take steps to prevent the deviation of the fund from its original purpose, if really that is the case.