The National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) and Education Policy Research and Advocacy Organization, Eduwatch, have called for the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) to be uncapped
They have also called on Parliament to reject the 2023 proposed formula for disbursing the fund.
This was contained in a petition that NUGS and Eduwatch presented to the Select Committee on Education of Parliament on Thursday, March 16.
They urged the Education Committee to collaborate with the Finance Committee to initiate steps to immediately uncap the GETFund to allow critical funds to flow into the education sector.
According to NUGS and Eduwatch, the future of Ghana’s education is dependent on the decisions that stakeholders will take today.
Allocation to the education sector for 2023, they said, is the lowest proportion of the government budget in two decades contrary to the 2030 Incheon Declaration to which Ghana is a signatory, and which provides that 4-6 percent of a country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and or at least 15-20 percent of total public expenditure must go to education.
“The GH¢ 24,772.16 million allocated to education this year constitutes just 3.09 percent of the country’s GDP and only 12.97 percent of Government Expenditure for 2023. This falls below the various international benchmarks that Ghana has signed unto.”
They pointed out that Ghana has lived within the recommended international benchmark on government spending on education between 2019 and 2023, recording an average of 4.0% and 17.1% as a percentage of nominal GDP and a percentage of total government expenditure.
“One of the reasons for the poor financing of education is the declining allocation of Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund). As you may be aware, the main objective for the creation of the Fund, per the Ghana Education Trust Fund Act, 2000 (Act 581), is to provide finance to supplement the provision of education at all levels by the Government.”
“Since the capping of GETFund through the passage of the Earmarked Funds Capping and Realignment Law, 2017 (Act 947), fewer resources have been available through GETFund for education financing, especially infrastructure at the basic level. To date, there still exist more than 5,000 basic schools operating under trees and sheds, with 2.3 Million children lacking desks.”
“In the 2023 budget statement for instance, the Ministry of Finance is proposing an allocation of 39% of the estimated total accrual into the Fund, an unfortunate development which calls for resistance and a rejection of the proposed formula to salvage the education sector.”
Clause (2)(2)(c) of the GETFund Act provides that monies from the Fund will be expended towards the operation of student loan schemes for students in accredited tertiary institutions through loan scheme mechanisms and agencies.
In June 2022, the government through the SLTF launched the ‘no guarantor’ policy that allows applicants to apply for loans using only their national identification cards.
This initiative raised the expected number of applicants from 32,744 in 2021 to 70,000 in 2022 according to the SLTF. This increment also means that the Fund will require an addition of more than half of the GH¢ 64.4 million disbursed in 2021 to meet the growing demand going forward.
NUGS and Eduwatch warned the decline in GETFund allocation by 30% in 2023 will lead to the crippling of the SLTF and subsequent denial of students who rely on the loans to finance their education.
There has been significant improvement in enrolment in schools with SHS increasing enrollment from some 813,000 in the 2016/2017 academic year to about 1.3 million in 2022, which will increase the number of students likely to access tertiary education.
Ghana’s tertiary enrollment rate as of 2022 was about 20% with a target of 25% by 2021 missed, putting into uncertainty, the Education Strategic Plan’s Gross Tertiary Enrollment target of 40% by 2030. Without a responsive student loan scheme to support poor students, this projection will remain a target and nothing more.
