Mr. Chairman, honourable deputy minster for education
in charge of tertiary, the deputy minister of transport,
CEO of student loan trust fund, other distinguished invitees,
comrades in the enterprise of student leadership, the media,
ladies and gentlemen. I greet you all.
It is a humbling experience for me to be accorded
this glorious opportunity to make a statement on
behalf of all private students in the country at this
momentous occasion. I wish to therefore begin by
saluting all of you especially the Ministry of Education
for this honour done me and my colleagues in the
nation’s private universities even though, I must however
confess that PUSAG and for that matter private
university students are very unhappy at the nature of
representation at this programme. Whereas the 9 public
universities in the country were given as much
as 63 slots, we have been given only 10 slots
notwithstanding the fact that there are over 42
private universities in the country. So the
discrimination has started right here.
It will be absolutely unconscionable and preposterous
for anybody to seek to downplay the significance of
private institutions in the Ghanaian educational
environment. This is because the invaluable
contributions of the private sector to the development
of education in the country cannot be
overemphasized; owing to the fact that government
alone is not in a position to meet the rising demands
of tertiary education in the country. It is thus
commonsensical for anyone to think that government
has a moral obligation of ensuring that the requisite
environment is created for the survival of private
educational institutions in order to ensure that they
complement the efforts of the state as far as the
provision of education is concerned.
Admittedly, I wish to state categorically state that
successive governments in the country have to a
large extent, contributed towards the progress of
private universities in the country by rolling out
laudable policies and programmes as well as the
provision of the necessary legal regime to ensure
their survival. It is therefore not surprising to observe
that most of the fine brains we have in the country of
late are proud products of private universities.
Having made these factual observations, I wish to at
this juncture draw the attention of government and all
stakeholders that private universities are increasingly becoming overwhelmed by several challenges which are crippling their
efforts in establishing their relevance in today’s Ghana and
hope that something would be done to rescue this
anomaly.
In as much as we are calling for parity with respect
to how government treats our counterparts in the public
universities, we think that as Ghanaian taxpayers and in
the spirit of our 1992 constitution which enjoins us to see
education as a due right and not a privilege, government
must consider some of its actions and policies which appear
very draconian and do not auger well for the educational
wellbeing of students in the nation’s private universities.
The issues are innumerable but let me attempt mentioning
a few which I consider very topical and require urgent
attention.
GETFUND AND MATTERS ARISING
Private university students wish to reiterate their
age-long call on the Mahama government for
GETfund support as it was the case in recent past. In
fact, it worth mentioning that during the erstwhile
Kuffour government, many private universities
including Zenith University, Aseshi, Valley View,
Winconsson, Islamic, Methodist, Central university
and many others benefited from GETfund projects. I
really do not know what has changed that this
government thinks that private universities are not
deserving of such benefits any longer. We however
appreciate that this would come at huge cost on
government and that is why we are not requesting for huge
projects on the campuses of private universities but
are rather pleading with government to extend to us
some of the mitigation policies that we see in public
tertiary institutions which directly benefit students
like the famous Student Loan Trust Fund (SLTL) in
order to cushion private university students against
rising cost of education. For God’s sake, we are also
Ghanaians who pay taxes and are therefore
expected to directly or indirectly benefit from our
government through its policies and programmes.
Please I crave your indulgence to join me say a big
NO to discrimination in pursuance to both the spirit
and letter of the1992 constitution of Ghana
IMPOSITION OF TAX ON PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES
AND LEVIES ON STUDENTS
It would be recalled that Government recently
slapped private universities with a wanton 25%
cooperate tax. This, we contend is having strong
rippling effects on we the students since our school
authorities have decided to pass on this extra charge to
us, resulting in the astronomical increase in our fees.
It is a fact that no government in the world has ever
contemplated taxing education because it is an
essential necessity as far as the development of its
citizenry and the nation is general is concerned. You
wonder what at all is wrong with the Ghanaian
government. Must we go taxing everything simply
because we want to increase our revenue?
PUSAG is therefore using this opportunity to appeal
to government to reconsider this unpopular decision
and possibly reduce it to about 10% in the worst
possible scenario. We the leadership of PUSAG have
been in talks with the Council for Independent
Universities and they have agreed that if this is done,
it would indeed result in reduction in the cost of
tertiary education as far as the private universities
are concerned. It is thus our contention that the tax
waiver given to private sector industries and the
removal of corporate tax from raw materials and
farming tools in the 2015 budget can be applied to
private universities as well.
THE UNIVERSITY CHARTER
The issuance of independence or charter status is
another area where private universities suffer great
discrimination and injustice from the state. Government
tells us that as a matter of policy, private
universities must exist for at least 10 years before
they qualify for autonomy which would essentially
mean that they wouldn’t have to pay a wanton GH
¢20,000 institutional accreditation to National
Accreditation Board and GH¢ 4,000 renewal fees.
However, we can prove that there are quite a number
of private universities that have existed for more than
10 years; yet government has refused to grant them
the charter. Surprisingly, the situation is completely
different in the case of public universities. How unfair
can we be?
DUMSOR AND GENERAL ECONOMIC HARDSHIP
PUSAG wishes to add its voice in calling on
government to as a matter of urgency, prioritize
investment into our energy sector as a way of
arresting this dumsor crisis which appears to have
overwhelmed the entire nation. The effects of dumsor
on education as well as general economic conditions
cannot be quantified. Indeed, in the specific case of
private universities which already pay outrageous
fees, students are again being surcharged with
huge financial commitment towards the acquisition of
energy plants in response to this seemingly
insurmountable energy crisis.
We wish conclude by charging on government to
treat our concerns with all the urgencies that they
deserve; failure of which we shall be left with no
option but compelled to resort to other means of
seeking redress including the staging of intense public
protestations and mammoth demonstration in the
coming days. PUSAG also wishes to admonish
authorities of private universities as well as our
constituents to strictly observe the nation’s legal
regime regarding accreditation and general
regulatory provisions.
Thank you.
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