Ministry of Education, MoE, to Soon Terminate GETFUND Foreign Masters Scholarship

In a recent development, two influential Organizations that focuses on advocating for a good educational reform in Ghana has appealed to the Ministry of Education, MoE, to terminate the operation of the GETFUND Foreign Masters scholarship.

This petition came after the Ghana Education Service recently advertised that the GETFUND Foreign Masters Scholarship is open for prospective applicants to apply for the scholarship to study abroad.

These two organizations who petitioned the Ministry of Education to terminate the GETFUND Foreign Masters Scholarship are the Africa Education Watch (EduWatch) and Institute of Education Studies (IFEST).

The documented statement which contained the Petition basically implored that the GETFUND Foreign Masters Scholarship was financially wasteful and needed to be abolished.

Hence, Parliament has to come in to deliberate on abolishing it as soon as possible.

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In providing a basis to support their petition, the two educational reform advocates cited the Section 2(2b) of the GETFund Act 2000 (Act 581), which explains that the GETFUND is supposed to provide supplementary funding to the scholarship Secretariat.

That means it is supposed to provide for the brilliant but needy students to study in second cycle and approved tertiary schools in Ghana, but not directly provide funding to study abroad as it is happening in status quo.

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Africa Education Watch, popularly called the EduWatch and the Institute of Education Studies, also known as IFEST, stated that it is irrational for the GETFUND to give GH¢ 400,000 to a single person to further his or her masters education abroad when;

A. 95% of programmes and courses offered under the non-bilateral Foreign Masters Scholarship are available to study in Ghana.

B. The cost of one Foreign Masters Scholarship can sponsor 20-40 local scholarships in the same programme or course in a Ghanaian university like KNUST, University of Ghana, etc.

C. When the average student loan amount of GHC 2,550 apart from being in arrears, cannot even fund tertiary education for the first 2 months of the academic year; causing some to drop out or do menial jobs to survive.

D. Ghana is in a period of economic austerity occasioned by higher taxes and expenditure rationalisation. How rational is this decision?

E. Scholarship secretariat is running another Masters Scholarship programme. Why duplicate?

F. Parliament did not approve any such expenditure item in the GETFund Formula for 2024.

According to Africa Education Watch and Institute of Education Studies, there are too many Senior High School leavers who are not able to further their education to the tertiary level as a result of the lack of financial support.

Even though 60% plus are passing their WASSCE, only 34% are making it to Universities.

“At the current 19%, Ghana cannot meet the 40% Gross Tertiary Enrolment target by 2030 if we keep spending tertiary financial assistance cash lavishly on a few, while many others lack local support to access tertiary education,” the statement noted.

In conclusion, Africa Education Watch and the Institute of Education Studies have strongly advocated for the termination of the GETFund Foreign Masters Scholarship, emphasizing its financial impudence.

They argue that reallocating these funds to support more local students is crucial for enhancing access to tertiary education and achieving Ghana’s educational targets.

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