Pay tuition fees, stipends of Ghanaian students abroad — Minority

The Minority in Parliament has urged the government to take immediate steps to settle outstanding tuition fees and stipends due to Ghanaian students studying abroad. 

It said the future of the students, and by extension the future of the country, should not be jeopardised any longer, due to gross negligence.

Moreover, it urged the government to, as a matter of urgency, reopen all negotiations between the affected universities and the Ghana Scholarships Secretariat that had since been cancelled due to non-payment of fees and stipends to students.

“Restoring these relationships is critical to ensuring that future students are not denied the opportunity to study abroad and return to support the development of our dear country due to the reckless and shameful mismanagement of this government,” a statement signed by the Deputy Ranking Member on the Education Committee of Parliament and Member of Parliament for Builsa South, Dr Clement Abas Apaak, said.

Titled “The Plight of Ghanaian Students Studying Abroad on Ghana Government Scholarships”, it said the government must be reminded that the neglect of the students was not just a betrayal of individual students but a betrayal of the nation as a whole.

The students, the statement said, were the very people “we expect to return home with the requisite knowledge, skills and expertise needed to drive national development.

“We stand with the students and their families and we will continue to use all available avenues to hold this government accountable.

“The Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government must act immediately to avoid further national embarrassment and irreversible damage to the future of our youth,” it said.

Damage

The Minority said Ghana’s youth deserved better and that it was partly for that reason that the next National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, led by former president John Dramani Mahama, sought the mandate of Ghanaians to, among others, introduce legislation to usher in a new era of government scholarship administration.

The statement said the new scholarship regime would be transparent and would prohibit the award of scholarships to government officials and streamline scholarships across multiple sectors to do away with the current uncoordinated regime.

It said the failure of the Akufo Addo/Bawumia-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to honour its basic obligations to the students had not only put the future of students in jeopardy but had cast the nation in a bad light.

The students, it said, some of whom were the brightest, were granted scholarships to pursue higher education, many to prestigious institutions in the United Kingdom.

“However, today, instead of celebrating academic success and contributing to national development, many face dire circumstances, with some unable to afford tuition fees, facing expulsion from their institutions and threatened with deportation,” it emphasised.