Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Students on the Government of Ghana
Scholarship in the United Kingdom say they are going through hell following the
alleged failure of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) to pay their
bursaries.
Some claim they are being sacked
from their universities because they have not received their fees and
allowances while other are even asking the GETFund to fly them back home if the
fund could no longer assist them.
Harrowing Experience
"The school has withdrawn my
access to all buildings including library online...I have been home since... I
have even asked GETFund to give me a return ticket but they have not replied...I
want to come home," was the distressing message one of the students sent
to DAILY
GUIDE.
Another student also quizzed “if
any of the Ministers of State have their children in this situation do you
think they would have kept quiet and allow this dehumanizing situation to
continue?”
“Worst of all we have
former NUGS Presidents who are Ministers of State today who threatened to take
the government to court because funds were not being released into the GETFund
account regularly as expected. Where are they today, why are they suddenly
quiet” he queried.
GSA Factor
Earlier a group
calling itself Ghanaian Students Studying Abroad (GSA) in a statement signed by
one John Kwame Domfeh said “Ghanaian students
studying under GETFund sponsorship in the UK are faced with challenges related
to non-payment of fees and allowances and wish to
register our disappointment at the Government of Ghana for failure to pay our
fees and living allowances since August, 2013.”
The release claimed that “attempts
to reach the authorities of GETFund to pay our fees and living allowances have
proved futile and we are on the verge of being sacked from our various universities.”
“We have sent several emails
to GETFund to register our frustrations but they have refused to reply to our
emails.”
They
said “complaints by university authorities and hostel managers unleashing debt
collectors on us to retrieve unpaid hostel rents have been some of our
difficulties in the United Kingdom. Some
of us have been relying on our parents back home to get money for hostel fees
and food since the government has failed to pay both our tuition fees and other
allowances.”
They appealed passionately President John Dramani Mahama to “promptly
salvage the situation.”
GETFund Reaction
However, Steve Baffoe, Public Relations Officer of GetFund
told DAILY
GUIDE on Monday that it was not fair on the part of the students to
accuse GETFund of wrongdoing when they are failing to disclose their
identities.
He said “we are working on the UK students issue. When I
checked, we put GH¢3million in Fidelity Bank account just last December to
cater for student allowance and fees.”
“My information is that we have paid a considerable number of
students in respect of their fees and we will continue to do that until the
GH¢3million is completely exhausted.”
“As the money is exhausted we receive money from the Ministry
of Finance to put in more money to continue the payments.
Mr. Baffoe said “the academic year starts from October and
there are some students whose programmes run for more than a year so we pay for
every academic year and those whose programmes go beyond the year we prepare
and pay when the new academic year begins.”
“We know who we are sponsoring. If we know the specifics, we
would be able to go into the database and check whether they are actually on
our sponsorship or not,” adding “if it is omnibus, it becomes difficult. You
may be speaking to people who may not be part of the students that GETFund is
sponsoring.”
Mr. Baffoe said “this same John Kwame Domfeh wrote something
in the papers last week. I have been trying to get in touch with him but to no
avail,” adding “even though it is not surprising they have an association to
cater for their welfare, as sponsors we would like to know who are the
individuals who are on our database.”
Writer's email: yawowusu74@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment