Professor Ransford Gyampo of the University of Ghana has said he earlier had issues with the ‘No Fee Stress’ policy proposed by the flag bearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama.
The Professor says he feared the policy was going to affect government subventions to the universities which is already deficient in its form.
According to him, the subventions are able to cater for just the salaries of the lecturers leaving the running of the universities to the internally generated funds which is mostly from the school fees.
Commenting on the policy on TV3’s KeyPoints Saturday, August 17, 2024, the Political Science lecturer indicated that Mahama’s later explanation to the policy and how he is going to implement it gave him some relief from the fears he earlier expressed about the policy.
“In a way, I may be tempted to agree with him given what I’ve seen. Initially, when I heard him say this I was a bit worried because my fear was that, that promise was going to impoverish the universities and I was expecting to hear the universities also speaking against it.
“Over the years, government’s subvention to the universities has dwindled. If I say subvention, the money…, University of Ghana for instance is a public university money to run. Over the years, the subventions have dwindled to the extent that the money that government brings today can only pay salaries.
“But the university and its running goes beyond payment of salaries. There should be money to pay for light bill. Government’s money is not able to cover the payment of electricity bills. Government’s subvention is not enough to cover the payment of water bills,” he explained.
The flag bearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Mahama says that first-year tertiary students will not pay academic fees.
According to him, this is part of a government initiative to lessen the burden on parents financing the cost of their children’s education.
“We will implement a no-fees stress programme to alleviate the financial burden on parents and students in financing tertiary education.
“We will implement a no academic fees policy at the university for level 100 students,” he said.
He made these comments at the NDC’s Youth Manifesto reading on Monday, August 12, 2024.
Mr Mahama also said that the party will redeploy the Student Loan Trust Fund to give continuing students the option to utilise student loans to finance their university fees directly, ensuring peace of mind for the students to focus on their studies.
The flag bearer has said that he will cut the spending at the office of government machinery to cater for the cost.
