Gifty Twum-Ampofo
MEMBERS OF Parliament (MPs) have begun considering the bill to amend portions of the legislation that requires a guarantor for tertiary students to access loans from the Student Loan Trust.
This is part of the government’s policy to fulfill its constitutional mandate under Article 25 of the Constitution.
The Student Loan Trust Fund (Amendment) Bill, 2021, returned to Parliament after suffering a series of postponements at the last session, having been laid in the House on December 16, 2021 by the Deputy Minister for Education, Gifty Twum-Ampofo, in accordance with Article 106(13) of the Constitution.
NDC MP for Akatsi South, Bernard Ahiafor, raised issues with the sustenance of the fund if beneficiaries are made to access the loan without the state having anything to hold them to pay back.
The NPP MP for Asante Akim North, Andy Appiah-Kubi, explained that the “no guarantor” caveat of the new student loan regime would be checked using the national identification system and digitalisation processes of the government such as the GPS for repayment of the loan, arguing that the bill would benefit the underprivileged students.
Backgrounds
In 2017, the Government pursued the Free Senior High School (SHS) programme to improve and expand access to secondary and tertiary education.
The successful implementation of this programme made it possible for many more students from poor socio-economic backgrounds to participate and complete their secondary education.
The government said the high-performance rate of Free SHS students who wrote the West Africa Secondary School Certificate Examination in 2021 indicated that there would be an increase in the number of students who will be transitioning to tertiary institutions in 2022.
These students will need financial support to pursue tertiary education, especially those from poor backgrounds who benefitted from the free Senior High School programme.
The government stated that if the Free Senior High School graduates are unable to transition to the next level of their education, the broad educational goals would not be fully realised.
The Ghana Tertiary Education Report projects tertiary enrolment to grow by forty percent (40%) between 2019/2020 academic year and 2022/2023 academic year.
Consequently, removing barriers in the acquisition of loans by tertiary students from the Student Loan Trust Fund will facilitate the provision of equal opportunity to everyone who wants to have access to higher education.
By Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House