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The Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) has earmarked an estimated GH¢410 million to complete abandoned projects in colleges of education to reduce infrastructure deficits.
In 2023, the government, through the ministry, initiated processes for the construction of 45 hostel facilities across the 46 colleges of education, but only nine of them had progressed to near completion.The Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, who disclosed this, explained that the issue was being resolved because the GETFund had been uncapped.
"In the past, only nine of the hostel facilities being built saw some significant progress nearing completion and some 11 had made some steady progress, and 25 were not seeing much work done.
“However, that won’t be the case now, so when work starts, it will flow steadily because the GETFund is not struggling for resources now because the government has uncapped it," Mr Iddrisu said at the inauguration of the governing councils of seven colleges of education in Sunyani last Monday.
"Under my instructions, contracts for these stalled projects have been terminated and to be re-awarded to reflect the real and meaningful value to encourage contractors to go to the site to complete the projects," he said.
The colleges, whose boards were inaugurated, included the Tamale and Bagabaga Colleges of Education, both in Tamale; the Atebubu College of Education, Atebubu; the Gambaga College of Education, Gambaga; the Evangelical Presbyterian College of Education, Bimbila; the Nusrat Jahan Ahmadiyya College of Education, Wa and the McCoy College of Education, Nadowli.
Mr Iddrisu said he was aware of some of the challenges of the colleges of education and specifically mentioned inadequate hostels and lecture facilities, and a lack of vehicles, including buses.
He said the GETFund had triggered a process to acquire some vehicles to replace the old vehicles to protect the lives of users and enhance movement.
"Using those old ones means that we are exposing you to risk on the roads. So, you will be given priority when the GETFund acquires the vehicles, including institutional buses," he explained.
Mr Iddrisu stated that Ghana now had 48 public colleges of education funded by the taxpayer, with three just added under the current government, indicating that the government had decided to absorb the Savannah College of Education, Damongo; the Ghana Muslim Mission College of Education, Beposo and the Christ the Teacher College of Education, Nsoko.
A directive, he said, had been issued to the Director of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) to work closely with those three colleges to finalise and complete their absorption processes.
Mr Iddrisu also urged members of governing councils, whose principals had retired, to work with GTEC to have a seamless process of replacement.
On scholarships, Mr Iddrisu underscored the need for institutionalisation of a legal framework to govern scholarships to eliminate corruption, nepotism and manipulations in the award of scholarships in the country.
He explained that there was corruption in the award of scholarships because of the lack of a legal framework to regulate the scheme.
"It's real that there is corruption and nepotism in the award of scholarship in Ghana, and we should stop pretending about it and use the legal framework to correct it," stated.
The Education Minister urged members of the governing councils to work together with the institutions to produce quality, relevance and higher education students.
He also encouraged the colleges to focus more on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) to secure the future of the country.
