Abolish payment of subsidy for SHS students

Page 29
Feb 4, 2008
THE Financial Controller of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mr Charles Otoo, has called for the abolition of the payment government subsidy for students of senior high schools.
He has suggested the introduction of bursaries for needy children, while the amounts spent on the subsidy be invested in infrastructure and other teaching and learning materials.
Mr Otoo explained to the Daily Graphic at the weekend that he was making the call because the alarming amounts being paid by the government as subsidy for students in senior high schools had become a drain on government resources.
He said apart from the fact that it would not be in the interest of the government to continue the payment of the subsidy, the reality on the ground was that in the near future, the government could not continue to make such huge payments.
Mr Otoo was of the view that if some parents could send their children to well-endowed schools at the basic level and paid very high fees, he did not see why such students should benefit from any government subsidy.
It was obvious that parents of such students did not need any support and therefore suggested that if the government should give any support at all, it should identify really needy students and not to engage in a blanket or wholesale payment of subsidy.
Mr Otoo mentioned increase in access, elimination of dropouts and support to the needy as justification and gave delays in the sourcing of funds, the low impact of the subsidy on the populace and the fact that the subsidy was only for students in public schools as challenges.
The Financial Controller noted that the key funding sources for the subsidy scheme had been the HIPC and the Ghana Educational Trust Fund (GETFund).
It was anticipated that with the introduction of the Capitation Grant and its resultant increase in enrolment, the amount needed to support the students continuing to second cycle level would continue to increase, he stressed.
The government had been concerned about fees paid by students and in September 2001, it gave a directive that the level of fees to be charged should not exceed that of the previous level, even though approval was given for an increase in feeding fee from GH 23p to GH 30p per day.
The government, therefore, agreed to subsidise the difference between the old fees and that of the new fees with GH¢ 31.00 per student per annum.
The subsidies paid by the government cover general stationery, first aid, building maintenance, sports fee, cultural fee and sanitation. The rest are postage, reports of cumulative records, textbook user fee, practical fee and furniture maintenance.
Since 2002/2003 academic year however, payment of utilities to the schools have stopped, because of the government policy of paying directly to the utility companies.
So, for 2001/2002, for 270,224 students and at a rate of ¢310,000.00( GH¢ 31.00), the net amount paid was ¢83,769,440,000.00 or GH¢ 8,376,944.00.
Mr Otoo gave an analysis of the amounts paid by the government over the years of implementation as follows: For 2002/2003 the amount paid for 310,995 students was ¢70,284,870,000.00 or GH¢ 7,028,487.00 while for 2003/2004 an amount of ¢100,133,469,000.00 or GH¢ 10,013,346.90 was paid for 349,506 students.
For 2004/2005 the amount paid for 378,832 students was ¢123,991.713,600.00 or GH¢ 12,399,171.36. An amount of ¢137,762,206,500, equivalent to GH¢ 13,776,220.65, was paid for 420,905 students during 2005/2006.
The figures paid from 2002 to 2006 included those for utilities.
An official of the Education Ministry supported the call and said even though a number of officials in the education sector did not agree with the continuation of the payment of subsidy by the government, they thought the issue was debatable and therefore did not really want to come out with their views.
Others were of the view that if a parent was rich and therefore sent his child to a well-endowed basic school, that should not disqualify his child from benefiting from government subsidy.