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Parliament has approved GH¢3.94 billion to finance educational infrastructural projects across the country.
The funds are specifically geared towards the completion of 3,606 Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) projects. Out of the amount, GH¢2.645 billion, representing 67 per cent, has been earmarked for the completion of stalled projects while GH¢1.29 billion would be used on budgeted items in the ensuing fiscal year.
The projects to be completed include administration and library blocks, assembly halls, auditoriums, classroom blocks, dining halls, dormitories, hostels and E-blocks. The rest are kindergarten blocks, lecture halls, model schools, sanitary facilities and staff accommodation facilities, among others.
Out of the projects earmarked for completion, 1,835 are at the basic school level, 65 of them are E-blocks, nine are model senior high schools, 1,347 are senior high schools, 347 are tertiary level school infrastructure, and three of them in the technical, vocational education and training category.
The Administrator of the GETFund, Dr Richard Ampofo Boadu, who gave details of the projects in an interview with the Daily Graphic, expressed appreciation to Parliament. Commenting on the approved distribution formula, he said, the Ashanti Region had the highest number of 638 projects, followed by the Central Region with 495, while 458 of them would be completed in the Eastern Region.
The Greater Accra and the Volta regions would see 312 and 286 newly completed projects respectively, while the Bono Region would be a beneficiary of 232 projects, with the Upper East and Western regions receiving 198 and 197 newly completed projects respectively, he added.
Dr Boadu further explained that the Upper West and Northern regions would have 166 and 161 new projects completed respectively by the end of the year, while the Bono East, Oti, Western North and Ahafo regions would receive 103, 100, 93 and 76 new projects respectively.
The North East and the Savannah regions complete the list with 56 and 35 newly completed projects respectively.
The GETFund Administrator stated that the objective of the Board of Trustees of the Fund was to complete as many of the initiated projects as possible this year. He said per the distribution formula, all awarding institutions such as the Ministry of Education, the Regional Coordinating Councils and the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, as well as the tertiary institutions via the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission, were to reactivate the construction phase of all stalled projects under their respective areas of jurisdiction.
He said the Fund was determined to complete a chunk of the stalled projects in its projects portfolio in order to enhance the administration of educational institutions and improve the delivery of quality education.
Touching on the remaining GH¢1.29 billion of the approved amount, Dr Boadu explained that it would be used on other activities of the Fund such as scholarships, desks and furniture supplies, and budgetary support for all the agencies under the Ministry of Education, among others, in the ensuing fiscal year.
