POLITICS
THE NPP GOV’T CARE-LESS ABOUT STUDENTS’ WELFARE IN GHANA- PAUL AYUONGA
*THE NPP GOV’T CARE-LESS ABOUT STUDENTS’ WELFARE IN GHANA- PAUL AYUONGA*
According to a Level 300 student of the University Of Education, Winneba, Paul Ayuonga also known as Agbigim Gbaung, the NPP gov’t is dispassionate about the welfare of the Ghanaian student. What they think about is winning elections by all means possible. This concern was triggered by the NPP’s unmerciful decision to oppose the bill tabled by the Bawku Central Law Maker, Hon. Mahama Ayariga that the government suspends the fees of public tertiary institution students due to some adverse impacts of Covid -19 on the incomes of households.
“It is indeed heartbreaking to hear that the bill has been kicked against by the NPP group in parliament!” Agbigim Gbaung said with a shock. In a Citi news interview with Prof. Kwesi Yanka, former government appointee responsible for tertiary education said on point blank that “I haven’t overheard many of them [students] complaining” about the payment of fees. Though many students of tertiary institutions have not complained about the payment of fees, it is clear they are suffering under Akuffo Addo and the NPP government.
Even before the outbreak of the global covid -19 pandemic, students who depend solely on the Student Loan Trust Fund in school have been left stranded. The funds have not been disbursed to them in the 2019/2020 academic year in full. Many of them went home during the closure of schools thinking that they might be paid, up to now, they haven’t received any message from the Trsut Fund. Others received messages indicating that they have been paid and later on received messages again informing them to ignore such messages, leaving them disappointed.
Other universities such as University Of Education, Winneba, Kwame Nkrumah University Of Science and Technology enrolled online learning systems where students had to access learning materials and even write both their mid semester and end of semester examinations. All these required data bundle. This was enough for the Student Loan Trust Fund to pay students their loan to enable them get data bundle for their online learning activities. One could conclude at this point without doubts that government had not released funds to the Trust Fund to pay students.
The President’s announcement of the reopening of universities in January 2021 was made when incomes of parents/guardians were adversely affected by the covid-19 pandemic for almost a year. In view of this, the Member of Parliament for Bawku Central, Hon. Mahama Ayariga saw it prudent for the government to absorb parts of the fees charged by the public tertiary institutions such as entertainment and sports. Because of the NPP’s care-less nature about students’ welfare, they voted against it in parliament. Meanwhile, before the general elections, they [NPP] claimed they were giving some funds to businesses as covid relief. If their basis for voting against the bill is because of the covid reliefs that were given to businesses, what about parents/guardians who did not benefit from the said reliefs? It could therefore be said that the government is discriminating against students.
Worse amongst all the above is how the scholarship secretariat awards the scholarships to students. It has become political! Per the lists of students whose school fees have been paid by the scholarships secretariat, most of them are TESCON/NPP members. All those who were identified as TEIN/NDC members in their respective districts have not been part of the scholarship.
