The newly appointed board chairman of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) and Member of Parliament for Ho West, Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah, has pledged to deal with the infrastructure crisis that currently confronts the educational sector, particularly in basic schools in the country.
The Ho West MP, who assumed his new role last week, considers his appointment to the GETFund board as a privilege to serve the country while indicating that it is a call to duty, at such a crucial time when the infrastructural gap and funding in our public schools have become topical.
In accepting the role, Mr Bedzrah underscored the immense contributions of the Fund to the educational sector since its establishment and reiterated the need to sustain its operations.
“Hon. Minister, you will recall the infamous “Mobrowa” struggle at the University of Ghana in 1999 when the issue of cost sharing was introduced at the tertiary level of education in Ghana. This culminated in the establishment of the Ghana Education Trust Fund as an innovative approach to funding not only Tertiary but public education in general,” the Ho West MP recalled.
“The Fund has since contributed immensely, in exponential terms, to the country’s educational infrastructure while supporting thousands of Ghanaians to study with ease without contemplating how to fund their education using the GETFUND Scholarship scheme,” he added.
He observed that the Mahama government’s decision to uncap the Fund has come as a great relief and will be key in addressing the setbacks that confronted GETFund when it was capped under the previous administration.
Removing setbacks such as this, according to Mr Bedzrah, will ensure efficiency and effective operationalization of the Fund in addressing the infrastructure and financial needs within the educational sector of the country.
