Minister orders release of funds for northern schools

Page 48
March 11, 2008

THE Minister of Education, Science and Sports, Prof. Dominic Fobih, has directed the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) to immediately secure funds from other sources for release to the Scholarship Secretariat for schools in the three northern regions.
That, he said, was to ensure smooth academic activities on the various campuses until Parliament gave approval to the GETFund budget for the year after which the funds secured would be refunded.
Prof. Fobih, who made this known in an interview, said Parliament was expected to discuss the matter either today or tomorrow, after which approval would be given.
Heads of second-cycle schools in the three northern regions have said they would be compelled to send home first and second-year students by Thursday, March 13, 2008 if full grants of the first and second terms were not released.
They explained that since the beginning of the academic year in September, last year, only 40 per cent of the feeding grant for second and final-year students had been released, while nothing had been received for first-year students for the same term.
However, Prof. Fobih was quick to add that the moneys were not feeding grants, since it would have affected other senior high schools in the country, adding that “this is a special scholarship to students of northern extraction”.
He explained that the money was part of the GETFund’s allocation to the Scholarship Secretariat, which disbursed it to schools of the beneficiaries.
Following the threat of sending students home until the funds were released, the Ghana Education Service (GES) has appealed to the heads to exercise restraint as steps were being taken to get the grants released.
The heads of schools in the northern regions had alleged that even though they had written letters to the sector ministry, the GES and the three regional ministers in northern Ghana on their plight, they were yet to receive the needed responses on the release of the grants.
The GES, however, said the release of the grants should be done by the Scholarship Secretariat and not by the service.