The General secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers, (GNAT) has called on President-elect John Dramani Mahama to ensure the passage of a Pre-Tertiary Education Funding Act to help revive the gradual collapse of schools at that level.
Thomas Musah Tanko says the funding sources could come from property tax and PTA contributions.
He is confident the funds from the Act could be used to address infrastructure deficit, Capitation Grant and other challenges with the Free SHS programme.
According to Tanko, it is time for the President-elect to do something right with Ghana’s education since it is the bedrock of Ghana’s democracy and poverty eradication.
“We want to remind his Excellency the President-elect John Dramani Mahama, we beg him, we must get our education system right. The only weapon available to break poverty is education and the only way we can sustain our democracy is education,” he said.
He said Mahama promised of having a stakeholder consultation in the sector to solicit ideas on making the Free SHS policy a better one, the reason the Association is putting its request across for consideration.
“The position of GNAT is this, we need a Pre-tertiary Education Funding Act that will determine how we want to fund pre-tertiary education in Ghana.
“And when we get that particular act, we can all be assured whether you are rich or you are poor we will be assured as to how we intend to fund our education system,” he added.
He suggested the funding to be tailored on PTA dues and taxation as well as tapping into the petroleum revenue to fund it.
“We have the PTA contributions it could find it’s way into the Act, we legalize it giving parents the opportunity, we also find a way of taxing the rich to care for the poor. We are talking about this petroleum resources and all that certain percentage of it could be dedicated to the pre-tertiary education,” Tanko. suggested.
He added that taking property rate and adding some percentage to VAT to support pre-tertiary education is something Ghanaians will embrace.
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