A wide section of the Ghanaian public has expressed strong sentiments and outrage following the Ghana Education Trust Fund’s (GETFund) decision to reintroduce the award of foreign scholarships, a move that stands in stark contrast to recommendations from the Auditor-General.
The controversy has ignited calls for reform and accountability, with prominent advocacy groups like Africa Education Watch and the Institute for Education Studies (IFEST-Ghana) spearheading a petition to Parliament and the Ministry of Education to halt these scholarships.
The core argument from the two advocacy groups is that such allocations blatantly contravene the GETFund Act, 2000 (Act 581), which is explicitly intended to support local education, not to finance studies abroad.
In a detailed critique of the situation, Kofi Asare, Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, highlighted the glaring inefficiencies and misprioritization of funds in the current system.
Mr Asare pointed out a specific egregious example in which he noted GETFund awarded a £26,000 scholarship to one Ernest for an MA in Public Policy at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, a program that he argued could be pursued at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) for less than £1,000.
This disparity, Mr Asare noted underscores a significant misallocation of resources that could otherwise address pressing educational needs within the country.
“According to the Auditor-General, GETFund awarded about £30,000 in Scholarships to Eric to study MSC Environmental Science at Aberdeen, UK. KNUST runs the same programme for less than £1,000. No serious country spends $25,000 on a Foreign Masters Scholarship when that programme is available in a reputable local university for $1,000”.
Kofi Asare, Executive Director, Africa Education Watch
Calls for Reform in Public Scholarship Scheme
As the 2024 elections approach, the Executive Director for the education think-tank group further underscored the critical need for all presidential candidates in the race to the Presidency to declare their position on the vexed matter.
He emphasized the need for each presidential candidate to state how he or she will address the inefficiencies and politicization within the public scholarship system to avert the situation in which public scholarship is exploited by the ruling government to the benefit of “their cronies”.
Mr Asare added that the electorate demands not just rhetoric but concrete plans to ensure that public funds are judiciously used to enhance the quality and accessibility of education for all Ghanaian students.
In addition, the decision to allocate substantial funds for foreign education scholarships is seen by many critiques including Mr Asare as not only financially imprudent but also as a misalignment with the fundamental objectives of the GETFund.
The Fund was established to bolster the local education system by improving infrastructure, resources, and overall educational quality.
Instead, the diversion of funds to support foreign scholarships in the view of many critics including the Executive Director for Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare appears to be a politicized move to benefit a select few while neglecting the broader educational needs of the majority.
Advocacy groups including the Institute for Education Studies and Africa Education have argued that the resources expended on foreign scholarships could be better utilized to support critical educational initiatives within the country.
This includes resourcing the student loan scheme, which has left many students without their stipends for more than an academic year, and addressing the dire state of basic school infrastructure.
Currently, over 5,000 schools operate under trees or within dilapidated structures, justifying the calls to rechannel funds from foreign scholarships to local educational priorities including resourcing the Student Loan Trust Fund secretariat and construction of more basic education infrastructure to eradicate the over 5, 000 basic schools under trees and dilapidated structures.
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