By Jesse Ampah Owusu
Accra, Nov. 01, GNA – Stakeholders in higher education at an open forum have urged Government to remove its capping on allocations to the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund).
They also called for the review of the Fund for it to focus on specific areas of educational support, particularly infrastructure provision, instead of its general support structure.
The open dialogue was on the topic “Making the GETFund Fit for Purpose” and was organised by the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (GAAS) as part of its project on “Motivating Higher Education Reforms in Ghana – Towards Equity and Sustainability”.
The dialogue provided a forum for open discussion on financing challenges that the higher education sector faced.
Professor Abednego Feehi Okoe Amartey, Vice Chancellor, University of Professional Studies – Accra, said the passage of the Earmarked Funds Capping and Realignment Act 2017, Act 947, had affected the resource envelope of the Fund.
“The current 2.5 per cent VAT allocated to the Fund should be reviewed upwards, given the increasing student enrolment numbers in public tertiary institutions as well as the number of projects undertaken across the various university campuses,” he added.
Prof. Amartey said the GETFund should put more emphasis on higher education institutions than the pre-tertiary sector, saying the current 12 per cent fund allocation to them was inadequate.
He called for a multiple stakeholder engagement to help address areas of financing challenges and explore other sustainable streams of income to support the Fund.
Mr Dennis Asare, a Senior Research Associate at Imani Centre for Policy and Education, said GETFund should adopt innovative ways of raising funds to support its activities.
“There is a need to improve their efficiency and encourage public-private partnerships to drive more support from the private sector,” he added.
The Ghana Education Trust Fund was established in 2000 by the Ghana Education Trust Fund Act, 2000, Act 581.
The Fund was primarily established to provide funding to supplement government budgetary allocations at all levels of education.
GNA