The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has pledged to offer free level 100 entry for tertiary students when voted into power in the 2024 general election. The party explained the announcement of the policy during the launch of its youth manifesto.
The Free Tertiary education policy has been welcomed by many who also believe it is doable.
The NDC stated while explaining the policy that all students enrolled in public tertiary institutions will have their tuition fees covered by the next NDC government.
NDC pledges free level 100 entry for tertiary students with an estimated 125,000 students enrolled in public tertiary institutions in the 2021–2022 academic year paid an average tuition fee of GHS 2,200.00, the party believes the policy is doable.
At the launch of the youth manifesto, NDC flag bearer John Dramani Mahama spoke.
You know there are many cases where I have seen students who have been offered admission but who have not been able to take their places in the university because their families simply cannot afford to pay the fees.
There was the case of a medical student in the Upper East region who was working on the farm. He had passed with As throughout, and he was called to medical school, but he was on the farm with his parents and couldn’t go to take up his admission because he couldn’t afford the fees.
There are many other students like that. You would think GHS 2500.00 or something like that is small. For some families, putting GHS 2500 together is a real struggle. And so, we don’t want, especially in the first year, when students are coming in for the first time, for them to go through what we call “fee stress,” and that’s why we call the No Fee Stress Policy. So, we are saying that we can absorb the academic facility user fees, but it will not affect subventions from the government to the universities and institutions of higher learning.
The subvention from the government has kept declining. The NDC promised to increase government subvention to public universities. He added that the institutions will receive the subventions on time to help them balance their budget.
Mahama shared the story above to reiterate the commitment of the NDC to implementing the Free Tertiary education policy for first year students to deal with lost opportunities in the education journey of SHS graduates.
John Mahama further stated that the NDC has estimated the funding required for the No Fee Stress Policy, specifically for the first semester fees of students. While speaking about the policy at the town hall meeting in Ho, he stated that it would cost the government between GHS 270 million and GHS 290 million.
He added that President Akufo Addo’s travel budget a few years ago in nine months amounted to GHS 69 million. Mahama furthered that a single cabinet retreat at the Jubilee House at the same time cost the country nearly GHS5 million. He asserts that the aforementioned expenses indicate significant waste within the system, and suggests reducing the GHS2 to GHS3.5 billion budget for the president’s office to fund the No Fee Stress Policy.
Mahama argued that Ghana cannot find GHS290 million to fund the No Fee Stress Policy and ease the fee stress of students admitted for year one and semester one. He supported his new policy with Article 25 of the 1992 constitution (Sec. 1c): “(c) higher education shall be made equally accessible to all, on the basis of capacity, by every appropriate means, and in particular, by the progressive introduction of free education.”
JOHN MAHAMA EXPLAINS HIS “NO ACADEMIC FEES POLICY” FOR ALL FIRST YEAR STUDENTS IN PUBLIC TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS pic.twitter.com/PVgBMaLHUf
— Sammy Gyamfi (@SammyGyamfi_) August 14, 2024
He concluded by stating that, Ghana can do this for the young people by cutting down wasteful spending and corruption and channeling the resources into the fees of first-year tertiary students. He criticized the NPP government for spending $58 million on digging the most expensive pit in the world. He said the $58 million could have been used to pay the fees of all first-year tertiary students.
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