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Former President John Dramani Mahama has stressed the need to adequately resource the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) to ensure the delivery of quality education in the country.
He described the current financial constraint of GETFund as worrisome, adding that the situation was negatively affecting education outcomes.
Mr Mahama who is also the flag bearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) was addressing the second graduation ceremony of the Academic City University College (ACUC) in the Ga East Municipality in the Greater Accra Region last Saturday.
In all, 31 students made up of 15 females graduated from the university.
Six of them received Academic Achievement Awards, with Daniella Ishioma Omenogor emerging as the Overall Best Student and valedictorian.
Mr Mahama said as a catalyst for sustainable development, education must be tackled holistically to enable the country to derive maximum benefit.
He said inasmuch as access to education was important, it was equally vital for quality of education to be enhanced to produce graduates who would be well equipped to meet the challenges of modern times.
“A focus on expanding access to education without attendant improvement in quality renders education insufficient in turning out well-equipped human resources that society needs.
“Education is also a leveller; poor quality education tends to widen the gap between the rich and the poor in our country.
This exists, especially in basic education where we have well-endowed basic schools producing students who eventually end up in tertiary schools, while poor basic schools have children lying on their bellies without furniture and writing on the floor, making it hard for many of them to climb the education ladder,” the former President added.
GETFund was created by a statute — GETFund Act, 2000 (Act 581), with the primary objective of providing funds to supplement the provision of educational infrastructure at all levels.
The sources of funding of GETFund is a 2.5 per cent value added tax (VAT) or any other higher rate as Parliament may determine; investment income; Parliament allocations; grants, donations, gifts and vested property.
Former President Mahama’s comments come on the back of Parliament’s decision in June to reduce the allocation to the fund in 2023.
Under the approved formula, Parliament allocated GH¢1.87 billion to the fund for 2023, a reduction of over 28 per cent of the GH¢2.60 billion allocated to the fund in 2022.
Former President Mahama also said that the digital and ICT driven global world must guide the country to change its educational system with emphasis on creativity and innovation to become more competitive for accelerated development.
“To thrive in this era, the educational system must evolve to equip the next generation with critical thinking skills, creativity and innovation to solve problems,” he said.
The NDC flag bearer further advised the graduates to dream big and implement ideas that would provide solutions to global challenges and reduce poverty in the country.
“Go out there and make a positive mark in the world.
I believe in you and so you must believe in yourself.
Do not disappoint your parents and country,” he added.
The Founder of ACUC, Dev Varyani, said the college had implemented measures to become the leading educational institution in the country, with emphasis on STEM education and entrepreneurship to help propel the nation and the entire African continent to the next level of prosperity.
For his part, the President of the College, Prof. Fred McBagonluri, also advised the students not to be scared in taking initiatives even if they failed initially.
