MoE criticises NDC no university fees for WASSCE graduates policy
A Deputy Minister of Education, Reverend John Ntim Fordjour has criticised the free university fees initiative to be introduced by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for WASSCE graduates if elected into power in 2025.
In an interview monitored by Pretertiary.com, he questioned why the policy would only benefit Level 100 students in public universities, excluding those in technical universities and Colleges of Education, which also have significant student populations.
Speaking on the Newsfile show on JoyNews, the Reverend Education Minister pointed out that the selective nature of the policy, which leaves out some tertiary students seeking financial aid, raises questions about its integrity.
“Public universities are just one part of the many tertiary institutions where thousands of students study. Their policy only targets public universities.
When asked about technical universities after their press conference, they were unsure. There were many divergent views expressed by the NDC on various media channels, and technical universities and colleges of education were definitely excluded from this policy.
Nursing and midwifery training colleges and other tertiary institutions have also been excluded. This is not a well-thought-out policy; it is not comprehensive and does not offer any real solution. It is a far-fetched and knee-jerk approach,” he said.
His comment comes after the flagbearer of the opposition NDC, John Dramani Mahama promised that first-year students in public universities would not pay academic fees if he won the 2024 election slated for December 7, 2024.
Speaking at an event, the former president said that when his next government comes into power the excessive budget of President Akufo-Addo will be cut to fund the no university academic fees initiative.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) leader John Dramani Mahama said the university policy would cost between GH₵270 and GH₵290 million, which is significantly lower than the presidency’s budget of GH₵2 billion.
“We have costed it (no academic fees initiative) and we approximate that for all first-year students in public tertiary institutions, it should cost anywhere between GH₵270 to about GH₵290 million
Let me tell you something, the president, a few years ago, his travel budget in nine months amounted to GH₵69 million. They held one cabinet retreat at the presidency, it cost almost GH₵5 million
There is so much waste in the system and even if you look at the office of the president’s budget alone you will be able to cut to raise enough money to pay these academic facility user fees for all level hundred students
“Do you know the budget for the office of the president? It is GH₵2 billion every year. It is even now that IMF has come and they have cut it down, at a point where it used to be three point something billion Cedis every year
We do not want, especially in the first year when the students are coming in for the first time to go through what we call fee stress, that is why we call it a ‘no fee stress policy
So we are saying that we can absorb the academic user fee but it will not affect the subventions of governments to the universities and institutions of higher learning
“The subventions from the government have kept declining, we are going to increase the subventions but apart from that we will make sure that universities get their subventions on time so that they can balance their budget,” he stated.
