The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, on Wednesday, announced the establishment of a Voluntary Education Fund to gather funds from Ghanaians who wish to support the education sector.
Presenting the 2018 budget statement to Parliament, the Minister said the Education Ministry is working closely with the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GET Fund) to fine tune the modalities of the Voluntary Fund.
The Fund, he said, will “enable Ghanaians [to] make voluntary contributions to support education.”
The move, some people believe, is expected to help finance the recently launched Free Senior High School programme.
According to Mr Ofori-Atta, the Capitation Grant was increased by 100 percent from GH¢4.50 per capita to GH¢9.00, in “fulfilment of Government promise to make basic education free and ensure participation by all.”
He added that “the implementation of the Complementary Basic Education (CBE) Programme is in its fourth cycle and operational in 43 districts of the three (3) Northern, Brong Ahafo, and Ashanti Regions.”
“The CBE will be expanded to 14 more districts to benefit an estimated 40,000 out-of-school children in 2018.
“Free SHS Programme commenced in September with first-year students in public Senior High Schools and Technical and Vocational Institutions. Government absorbed all fees approved by GES Council for 353,053 first-year students.
The programme will continue with the second batch in 2018.
“Government restored the Teacher Trainee Allowance to cover over 49,000 trainees from 41 public Colleges of Education for the 2017/18 academic year. A projected 52,000 Trainees will benefit from the Teacher Trainee Allowance in the 2017/18 academic year,” the Finance Minister noted about the education sector.
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