Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, Education Minister
Parliament yesterday approved GH¢924,804,543 for the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) for the 2018 fiscal year.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Effutu strongly urging the government to look at alternative and permanent source of funding for its Free SHS policy.
The Effutu MP in the Central Region, Alex Afenyo-Markin, said looking at the huge cost involved in the funding of the Free SHS, the government cannot solely rely on the GETFund and other national pool of resources which have their dedicated functions in the management of the economy.
He therefore, said it would be very prudent for a new single, dedicated fund to be established for the sole funding of the government’s flagship policy.
“Mr Speaker, I want to urge the ministry of finance to bring a new legislation to this house without delay for the creation of a dedicated fund to run the Free SHS which is a laudable social policy to benefit all Ghanaians and help speed the development of the country,” he said
He urged fellow MPs to support the government in establishing a dedicated fund for the programme.
Out of the amount approved for the GETFund, 35.48% representing GH¢328,136,603 (GH¢328.1 million) has been allocated to tertiary institutions; 27.72% – GH¢246,323,360 (GH¢256.3 million) to secondary schools; 27.37% – GH¢253,11,580 (GH¢253.1 million) to basic schools while other expenses by the GETFund amount to GH¢66,604,000, representing 7.2% and MPs’ emergency projects and monitoring have been allocated GH¢20,625,000 which represents 2.23%.
MPs were particularly not very happy that as a result of the passage of the Earmarked Funds Capping and Realignment Act 2017 (Act 947), the GETFund this year has drastically been cut from the expected GH¢1.8 billion which would have accrued from the 2.5% deduction of the Valued Added Tax (VAT).
The GETFund is expected to provide Capitation Grant at the basic level, feeding grant to special schools, subsidy for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), construction of kindergarten facilities, provision of white boards in schools, fencing of schools with high risk of encroachment and subsidy for continuing students in SHS.
Members of Parliament are also to be given GH¢60,000 each for the funding of education-related projects in their various constituencies, while GH¢15,000 has been allocated to each for the monitoring of such projects.
The minority leader, Haruna Iddrisu, said that the capping of the GETFund would adversely affect the provision of infrastructure in the schools and consequently quality of education.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr