{"id":374627,"date":"2017-11-17T11:44:55","date_gmt":"2017-11-17T11:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=374627"},"modified":"2017-11-17T11:46:26","modified_gmt":"2017-11-17T11:46:26","slug":"you-cant-rely-on-voluntary-contributions-for-free-shs-ablakwa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/11\/you-cant-rely-on-voluntary-contributions-for-free-shs-ablakwa\/","title":{"rendered":"You can’t rely on voluntary contributions for Free SHS- Ablakwa"},"content":{"rendered":"
National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for the North Tongu Constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has said the government cannot afford to rely on voluntary contributions to fund education, particularly free SHS, as projections for those funds may not materialize.<\/p>\n
The government announced that it would set up a fund<\/strong><\/a> to receive voluntary contributions from individuals to support the implementation of the free SHS programme and the educational sector as a whole.<\/p>\n However, this plan has been criticized by the Minority who believe this is an indication that government does not have the funds<\/strong><\/a> to properly implement its much-touted programme.<\/p>\n According to Ablakwa, putting a lot of expectations on money which would be accrued from the fund could backfire as it may not appeal to Ghanaians enough to voluntarily contribute to it.<\/p>\n \u201cNo country runs public education on just voluntary funds. What if the Fund is not considered attractive and you don\u2019t really get as much as you are expecting. We can\u2019t leave the destiny of our children\u2019s quality education to just a voluntary fund where we don\u2019t really know the projections. You cannot just depend on voluntary funds, you can\u2019t run education that way. You need a concrete plan and you need a well-defined funding source. It\u2019s clear that government is struggling to fund it and struggling to identify a clear funding source.\u201d<\/p>\n Budgetary allocation for Free SHS \u2018woefully inadequate\u2019 \u2013 Ablakwa<\/strong><\/p>\n Mr. Okudzeto Ablakwa has already described the government\u2019s budgetary allocation for Free SHS as woefully inadequate to support the programme.<\/p>\n According to him, government would need at least two billion cedis to support Free SHS in 2018, 800 million cedis more than the amount that was allocated to it in the budget.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is clear that there are real challenges, and sadly, we didn\u2019t hear of a Marshall Plan. I thought there was going to be a huge plan based on the assurances the President had given the nation that he was aware of the challenges with free SHS and that the nation should expect that it will be addressed soon. Unfortunately, the 2018 budget did not present a Marshall Plan to address these challenges. What we are seeing is an inadequate allocation in the budget; 1.2 billion is woefully inadequate for four terms for the 2018 fiscal year,\u201d the former deputy education minister said on the Point Blank segment of\u00a0Eyewitness News<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The New Patriotic Party (NPP) government\u2019s flagship free Senior High School programme was launched in September as part of measures to ensure all Ghanaian children are educated, \u00a0at least,\u00a0up to the SHS level.<\/p>\n However, since its introduction, the programme has encountered a number of issues, mostly in relation to the capacity of the schools and the\u00a0availability of desks\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>for and other infrastructure for students.<\/p>\n