Govt clears arrears of students in 3 northern regions

The government has paid first term scholarships for second and third-year students in second cycle schools in the three regions of the north who are not covered by the Free Senior High School (SHS) Policy for the 2017/2018 academic year.

The move is to accentuate the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government’s commitment to end the cycle of non-payment of scholarships to schools that often led to their closure.

The Registrar of the Scholarship Secretariat, Mr Kingsley Agyeman, made this known in an interview with journalists in Tamale as part of a working visit to the Northern Region.

He said it was also to emphasise an earlier pledge by the government that continuing students in second cycle schools would continue to enjoy the Northern Students’ Scholarship despite the introduction of the Free SHS education policy.

Payment of outstanding scholarships

Mr Agyeman said the government had also paid the outstanding scholarship arrears of GH¢54 million to second cycle schools for the second term of  the 2016/17  academic year, adding that what is outstanding now is that most of the schools are yet to bring their returns to enable the secretariat to disburse the funds.

“Schools have not even brought their returns. We have paid just 50 per cent of it and as soon as they bring their returns, the other 50 per cent will be paid them,” he stated.

Mr Agyeman stated further that the only outstanding debt when it comes to government scholarship to schools in the country is the  third term of the 2016/2017 academic year.

“When the NPP government took over, we had to clear the 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 outstanding debts. Outstanding arrears have always been part of scholarship in Ghana but the current administration has shown commitment and now we are left with just one term, being the 2016/2017 third term,” the registrar of the Scholarship Secretariat said.

Free SHS

Mr Agyeman described as unfortunate statements by some people that the free SHS risked collapse because the government was owing schools, saying that was very laughable and worrying because “we paid 20 per cent of the Free SHS to the schools and we are waiting for the returns to pay the remaining 80 per cent”.

He said to reiterate what the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Prof. Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, said, just 56 schools out of the 674 public sector SHSs in the country had so far submitted their returns on the funds released to them under the implementation of the Free SHS Policy.