Hon. Akosua Frema Osei Opare, the Chief of Staff of Ghana, has urged the public universities across the Country to consider the economic hardship in the country before charging their school fees.
She made this plea with the intention that, increasing the school fees may deprive many potential students who have the desire to enter the tertiary institutions from enrolling.
Her appeal was made to Citi News when she was with the President and some other government officials at the Ridge Church on December 31, 2022 in Accra.
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Chief of Staff’s Plea to the Various Universities
Hon. Akosua Frema acknowledged that public universities have every right to increase their fees because of the recent inflation in prices of general goods.
However, she also advised that it must be done with a certain level of consideration for students and parents as a whole.
“I am sympathetic but sure as you know, if prices have gone high, then of course naturally it will cost more to run the universities, but I think just like we say, we don’t want to impoverish anybody.” Hon, Akosua Frema stated.
She also added, “We don’t want potential tertiary students to drop out of school because you can build a nation well with high-level human resources.”
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Tertiary Institutions Increase Fees for 2022/2023 Academic Year
On 16th December, 2022, a letter signed by the Director-General of Ghana Tertiary Education Commission mentioned that parliament has approved the increment of the fees for the 2022/2023 academic year.
A 15% increment was approved across board for all public institutions covered under the Act.
The letter however stated that “Fees and Charges applicable in all public Tertiary Institutions for the 2022/2023 Academic Year may be adjusted by up to a maximum of 15% of the last approved rates.”
This means that, the universities have the liberty to charge fees below the 15% approved by the parliament.
I believe the Chief of Staff was making reference to this letter when she made her plea to the public universities.
Most Universities have already announced their new fees scheduled and most continuing students are worried and expressing their grievances that it is too much.
Hopefully, the Chief of Staff’s plea along with the intervention of the various Student Representative Council (SRC) will yield some positive results and see a decrease in the fees of the various Universities.
Credit: citinewsroom.com
