According to the Association, the Secretariat’s attempt to change the mode of payment after application for the grants have been made, will only further delay processes for the payment.

[contextly_sidebar id=”yWehCmQT42P658O33TXaRaYzetrK3pBh”]“We are reliably informed by the Secretariat that all beneficiary institutions should collate bank account details of recommended applicants to the Secretariat for direct payment of the Thesis and Bursary Grants to be effected. Though the new mode of payment is ideal, we strongly believe it will only further delay the monies already in arrears. This is not the right time for this to and fro movement of the 2016/2017 bursary and thesis grant,” the GRASAG leadership said.

In a statement signed by the Jacob Apibilla Ayembilla, the National President of GRASAG, the Association said it had no prior knowledge about the plan to change the mode of payment of their grants despite holding various meetings with the scholarship secretariat on other subjects.

“GRASAG, as a major stakeholder, was not consulted before the sudden change in the mode of payment; which we believe is not congenial to the graduate student, at this material moment. The National Executive Committee (NEC) on several occasions met with the Registrar and the entire management team of the Scholarships Secretariat, and this mode of payment never came up in our discussions, we therefore don’t agree,” it said.

GRASAG said while it was ready to cooperate with the Scholarships Secretariat to urgently address the matter, it expects that the Secretariat completes payment of all applicants by Monday, January 15.

“We are by this release giving the government and the Secretariat up to Monday, 15th of January, 2018, to pay all recommended applicants. Graduate students have not been treated fairly, and we need to be treated with utmost respect.”

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post GRASAG issues 1-week ultimatum to gov’t over unpaid grants appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to Deputy Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the law does not make the administration of all aspects of Education before the tertiary level the mandate of the Ghana Education Service (GES).

[contextly_sidebar id=”9aXXF50PwMbPjNQHx6MGxuUAq6STGSoa”]He argued that the funding for Free SHS, which government describes as a scholarship, could be placed under the watch of the Secretariat, whist the GES maintains administrative control of other aspects of the progamme.

“This law does not say that exclusively all aspects of pre-tertiary education including it’s scholarship functions should be brought to the GES. That’s not the intention of the law. It’s more about the administration of the substantive programme, curriculum and other things. But the scholarship aspect over the years, has sat with the Secretariat,” he said on Eyewitness News on Thursday.

“We as an administration have only argued that to the extent that the funding part of Free SHS is a scholarship, it ought to sit with the Secretariat as well so they administer it.  If there are other parts like curriculum or enrollment, the GES and other organizations can handle them.”

‘Unlawful’

The Minority in Parliament had earlier described the move as illegal.

According to the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, the educational sector laws, specifically the Act governing the operations of the Ghana Education Service, have been breached with the allocation of GHc 1.2 billion to the Secretariat.

Haruna Iddrisu said the GES under the Ministry of Education should be responsible for the Free SHS allocation “if we are respecting the laws of Ghana.”

“The Scholarship Secretariat deals with scholarships. This [the Fre SHS policy], is a major government policy of providing bursaries to ensure free secondary education… the scholarship secretariat must focus on Cuban students, Ghanaians students in Moscow.”

This assertion has been dismissed by a former Ghana Education Service Director, Charles Aheto Tsegah, who said that the government has not erred by taking such a decision.

He explained that, the basis for which the government has taken this decision is to label the Free SHS money as a scholarship.

“By labeling it as a scholarship, it moves away from the Ministry of Education budget into the account or the budget of the office of government business where the Scholarship Secretariat is located,” Mr. Tsegah explained on Eyewitness News.

In his view, “within that context, it is right for the government to say that money is a scholarship money, and it will be handled and managed by the scholarship Secretariat.”

Scholarship Secretariat can handle Free SHS funds – Aheto Tsegah

A former Ghana Education Service Director, Charles Aheto Tsegah, sees nothing wrong with the decision.

In a Citi News interview, he explained that the basis for which the government has taken this decision is to label the Free SHS money as a scholarship.

“By labeling it as a scholarship, it moves away from the Ministry of Education budget into the account or the budget of the office of government business where the Scholarship Secretariat is located,” Mr. Tsegah explained on Eyewitness News.

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By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Transfer of Free SHS funds to Scholarship Secretariat lawful – Gov’t appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Speaking on Eyewitness News on Thursday, the Deputy Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said that the government was committed to ensuring that beneficiaries of scholarships from the government receive what is due them.

[contextly_sidebar id=”FlCPOFIak9i7LEhRhVCZkpKwrGVyv0rE”]According to him,  the current administration had spent large sums on clearing the backlog of arrears that had built up over the years, and was hopeful that by the second part of 2018, all outstanding payments would have been made.

“The question of why stipends for beneficiaries of scholarships sometimes delay, is a question of funding of the Secretariat, and of the priorities of any particular administration,” Mr. Oppong Nkrumah said.

“We have in this fiscal year spent heavy amounts of money in clearing a lot of the arrears in the Secretariat because in previous years,  because a lot of people were being enrolled on scholarships, but government money was not adequate, people were put on and there was no money from the Secretariat.”

Scholarship or hardship?

Many concerns have been raised about the apparent neglect of Ghanaian students abroad who are beneficiaries of scholarships from the government.

The students consistently complain that they struggle to make ends meet due to delays and sometimes outright non-payment of allowance due them.

A Ghanaian student in Morocco told citifmonline.com in November that scholarship beneficiaries are supposed to get $250 dollars a month from the Ghana government for upkeep, which is the only money they have access to for living expenses, as they are not allowed to work, per their agreement with the Morocco government.

“The only source of income we have is the money that comes from the government of Ghana, which is $250 a month, and $300 for health allowance per year, and then the book allowance. So that is what we rely on, and when it doesn’t come, it puts us in this particular situation, ” one of the students said.

The students lamented that no support has come from the government since February 2017, a situation that is pushing them to the edge of desperation.

The situation is similar in other countries hosting Ghanaian scholarship beneficiaries, particularly Russia and Cuba.

Kojo Oppong Nkrumah explained that, the arrears had built up over the years because government at the time had approved persons for scholarships despite not making any budgetary allocations to them.

“We’ve been paying down a lot of those arrears and gradually trying to close that gap to ensure that once we have students there,  we budget adequately and pay for them. And we are expecting that hopefully by the middle of 2018 and on wards,  we will not have students under scholarships who don’t have budgetary allocations.”

The issue has been brought under the spotlight after government stated that it would allow the Scholarship Secretariat to administer the funds meant for the free Senior High School programme.

The Minority in Parliament, led by Haruna Iddrisu, have slammed this plan, stating that the Scholarship Secretariat should be left to focus on addressing the concerns of the stranded beneficiaries.

“The Scholarship Secretariat deals with scholarships. This [the Fre SHS policy], is a major government policy of providing bursaries to ensure free secondary education… the scholarship secretariat must focus on Cuban students, Ghanaians students in Moscow, ” Haruna Iddrisu said.

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By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Scholarship arrears to be cleared by mid 2018 – Gov’t appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The account names, ‘GhanaStudentsAbroad’ on Twitter, and ‘SOS ghanascholarshipsecretariat’ on Facebook have been highlighting struggles of the students and the apparent neglect by the government.

The accounts are being run by students in Algeria, China, Cuba, Morroco and Russia and looking to give a more sustained voice to their advocacy for a better commitment from the government and the Scholarship Secretariat.

Posts on the students’ accounts lament what they describe as a humanitarian situation, as they say, as an example, students in Algeria and Morocco have been evicted from their apartments and rendered homeless due to accumulated rent.

The students say all other avenues, which included statements and petitions to media houses and state institutions, have borne little fruit and they hope to garner some support and exposure via social media mediums

The most recent plea from the students on government scholarships came from Cuba, where they have expressed their discontent because of their seeming abandonment by the government.

They called for a review of the Cuban-Ghana scholarship program to make it more useful and stress-free.

In a statement copied to citifmonline.com, the President of the National Union of Ghana Students in Cuba, Nyarko Quansah said only two out of eight months allowances due them have been paid for this year.

He said the students, most of whom are studying medicine, are unhappy about their condition and believe it is as a result of the many lapses in the administration of the policy for the stay in Cuba.

Ghanaian students on government scholarships in other countries have been complaining of neglect from the Ghanaian government.

Most have had to endure months of non-payment of their monthly stipends while others have been forced out of their residences due to non-payment of rent.

The government has on several occasions promised to address the problem but it has become recurrent as successive governments have all struggled to deal with it.

The government has not made any time-based commitments to these students and a deputy Minister of Finance, Kwaku Kwarteng, speaking to Citi News in July at the mid-year budget review, toed a familiar line.

“…those who are being owed now, we will have to find money to pay them. We met a lot of indebtedness. We are mobilising as much money as we can get. We have competing needs but we will pay all the commitments we have to meet.”

Mr. Kwarteng said however only said these settlements would be done “as quickly as we can.”

“…these are things you can do as and when money comes in so we will continue to work as quickly as we have done to ensure that we clear this once and for all so that we do not have the kind of backlog that will put any pressure on a new government as we have had it.”

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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