FINANCING EDUCATION (MARCH 16)

President John Evans Atta Mills on Saturday touched on a subject that will gladden the hearts of many students in tertiary institutions.
He announced at the 2009 congregation of the University of Ghana (UG) that the government would not espouse full-cost recovery in tertiary institutions.
“Providing quality education, the cycle will never be complete without quality tertiary education. That is why the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC’s) social democracy agenda does not believe in full-cost recovery,” he said.
In our part of the world, particularly since the adoption of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) in the 1980s, our partners have insisted on certain key reforms in the social services sector. These reforms include cost recovery in education, health and utility services.
Sometimes it makes sense for donors or creditors to demand proper accounting of the resources they provide us to improve on living conditions.
The decay or deterioration of facilities in most of our public institutions, particularly in the health and educational sectors, is the result of the lack of resources to renew or expand these structures.
Thus, one is greeted with the sad spectacle of people sleeping on the floor in the wards of public hospitals, while in our universities, students are crowded into lecture halls and residential blocks.
The way out of this predicament does not lie solely in the introduction of cost recovery in a country where the majority are on subsistence.
The state, as is the case in the so-called advanced societies that give us support, provides safety nets for the vulnerable before it introduces measures to compel those who have to pay for social services. That is why, in the advanced economies, they have the dole system to support the marginalised in society.
In providing support for students in tertiary institutions, it will be necessary for governments to go beyond espousing the policy of not recovering full cost to carry out a needs assessment of students. There are some students from rich homes and it will not be too much to ask their parents and guardians to contribute to their education.
Society itself has its priority areas and to be able to develop the skilled manpower base to prosecute such an agenda, it will also be worthwhile for the government to expand the scholarships, grants and bursary schemes for students who excel in some areas, no matter their economic circumstance.
For, we know that some students have used their loans from the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) to acquire luxury items, instead of using the money to facilitate qualitative education for themselves.
Indeed, the Daily Graphic concedes that the majority of students could have dropped out of school but for the support they received from the loans scheme.
Nonetheless, with the credit crunch staring at the globe, we call on the government to desist from dishing out handouts to students just on account that some people cry that they cannot afford it.
Although the Daily Graphic agrees that full-cost recovery will deny the poor access to education, a wholesale programme would be difficult for the economy to sustain.
However, we welcome the initiative by the government to calm the agitation on our campuses, but it should come up with a comprehensive needs assessment programme that can throw up for identification needy students so that they can be appropriately supported.