Government has announced its preparedness to increase the research funding of tertiary education teachers from 0.3% to one per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Also, government’s budgetary allocation to tertiary education shall be at least 2.5 per cent of GDP while at least 50 per cent of the Ghana Education Trust Fund budget allocation shall be disbursed to tertiary education.
The Executive Secretary of the National Council for Tertiary Education, Professor Mohammed Salifu, who announced this, said government would establish a National Research and Innovation Fund to address priority areas of research and development in support of national economic growth and poverty reduction.
He was addressing a National Forum on Tertiary Education Reforms organised by the Ministries of Education and Information in Accra to announce new policy reforms for tertiary educational institutions.
Tuition, he said, would be free for all Ghanaian students except those who opted for the fee-paying category.
Speaking on the cost of tertiary education, he said it would be shared between Government, Tertiary Education Institutions, students and the private sector.
Ghanaian students would pay Academic Facility User fees and those in halls of residence would bear the cost of utilities consumed.
However, non-Ghanaian students would pay the full cost of their education while tertiary education institutions are required to generate at least 30 per cent of their budget requirements.
With regard to teaching tertiary students, Prof Salifu said all academic staff were required to go through teacher education programmes before their institutions give them approval to teach.
“The fact that the person has a PhD doesn’t mean he or she has the skills to teach well, so the training programme would equip them to enable them to give out their best to the students,” he said.
The Executive Secretary disclosed that Colleges of Education shall be integrated with selected Universities as University Colleges.
Education minister, Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh, said government was going to ensure that all institutions adhered to the new policy of training their lecturers.
He cautioned public tertiary institutions to desist from using internally generated funds, saying it is part of public money that needed approval from government before it could be used.
“Internally Generated Fund is not for the institution, and if its usage is not backed by law, then it becomes arbitrary,” he said.
Source: GNA
