The National Democratic Congress (NDC) spokesperson on Education, Dr Clement Apaak, has called on Ghanaians to vote for the NDC and former President Mahama in the upcoming 2024 elections to reset the education sector and improve quality outcomes.
Speaking at the maiden “Time with Sectoral Spokesperson” press engagement, Dr Apaak emphasised that the next NDC government plans to comprehensively overhaul the educational system by working closely with all stakeholders to expand educational infrastructure, enhancing teacher welfare and professional development, and significantly increasing investment in the sector to achieve better educational outcomes.
“The incoming John Mahama, NDC administration will do the following in the tertiary sector, we will implement a non-academic fees policy for all first-year students in all public tertiary institutions. For the sake of clarity, this would include universities, technical universities, colleges of education, as well as nursing training colleges. We would also provide free tertiary education for all persons with disability.
“We would provide and implement a free bed-for-all programme by building on-campus and affordable student hostels and expanding accommodation facilities for tertiary students through PPP schemes. We will also provide trainee teachers and nurses with allowances, student loans, and other diverse funding opportunities for them to be able to survive and thrive during their training.
“In addition, we will revamp the student loan trust fund to increase loan amounts based on a needs assessment and ensure prompt disbursements. We will introduce legislation to usher in a new era of government scholarship administration which would prohibit the award of scholarships to government officials and streamline scholarships across multiple sectors to do away with the current uncoordinated and indeed corrupt regime.
“We would de-collateralise the GET Fund and restore it to its original mandate of educational financing. We will continue our policy of establishing public universities in every region with a focus on the newly created regions. We will also improve subventions to public universities and ensure timely disbursements in the secondary sector,” he stated.
