Accra, June 9, GNA – Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, the Minister of Education, has inaugurated a 17-member Board of Trustees of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) with a call on the members to do more in developing educational infrastructure in the country.
The Minister said education was being transformed to meet the socio-economic development of the country and that the role of GETFund in providing funding for educational infrastructure and facilities within the public sector could not be understated.
Dr Adutwum said the government viewed education as a means to an end and would work assiduously to create a robust GETFund to address infrastructure challenges in schools.
The Minister said the first-ever construction of Senior High School for the creative arts industry would soon be opened to promote Ghanaian literature, music, dance, and drama.
He said the motive for all primary four pupils in public schools to write the new National Standards Test in November 2021 was to assess their knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes, which was central to the new pre-tertiary education curriculum.
The National Standards Test is in response to Ghana’s Education Strategic Plan from 2018 to 2030, which prioritises improving learning outcomes at all levels by creating a national standards-based assessment at the pre-tertiary level, to measure the quality of learning achievements before the end of Junior High School.
Professor Dominic Fobih, the Chairman of Board of Trustees, GETFund, pledged commitment to work to meet the duties and responsibilities.
“We have the people to work to support the vision of the government’s educational agenda. We called for support from the Ministries of Finance and Education to complete the ongoing projects,” he said
The members of the Board are responsible for the management of the Fund and the GETFund Act 2000(Act 581) enjoins them to pursue policies to achieve the objectives of the Fund; collect or arrange to be collected monies lawfully due to the Fund; account for the money in the Fund; contribute per section 2 (2), (C), monies from the Fund towards the operation of student’s loans schemes for tertiary institutions.
Other responsibilities of the Board are to approve and pay expenditure charged on the Fund under the Act and any enactment, organise fund-raising activities to raise money for the Fund, and impose such charges as it considers necessary for services rendered by the secretariat of the Fund.
The Board members are Dr Richard Ampofo Boadu, Administrator; Dr Mohammed Marzuq Abubakari, Religious Bodies; Mr Ammishadai Amoah, Ghana Revenue Authority; Mr Benjamin Gyasi, Ministry of Education, Prof Mohammed Salifu, Ghana Tertiary Education Commission; Dr Kofi Mensah, Ghana Association of Bankers; Ms Aretha Abena Duku, Ghana Insurers Association and Mrs Kokui Adzo Adu, Association of Finance Houses.
Other members are Professor Abednego Okoe Amartey, Vice Chancellors- Ghana; Ms Philippa Larsen, Ghana National Association of Teachers; Mrs Grace Amey-Obeng, Association of Ghana Industries; and Mr Emmanuel A.Addo, Ghana Employers’ Association.
The rest are: representatives from the Ghana National Union of Technical Students, Ghana Education Service Council, Ministry of Finance, and Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection.
GNA