2010 Budget cannot address challenges in education- NUGS

Accra, Dec 6, GNA - The National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) has described the economic policy on education under the 2010 Budget statement as over ambitious, stressing that it lacked the cutting edge to address challenges in the sector.

The statement signed by Mr Wonder Madilo, President of NUGS and copied to the Ghana News Agency on Saturday in Accra, expressed concern over government's capacity to eliminate the shift system, build schools as well as provide free uniforms to pupils.

"Why spend 17 million a year on free school uniforms when students cannot have access to modern toilets and water supply and what is the point of feeding people when they have no access to water and toilets," the statement said.

It expressed concern over the fact that though polytechnics education had contributed immensely towards national development, nothing was said about the matter in the 2010 budget statement. The statement described a situation where government relied heavily on the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) to finance most expenditure at the educational sector as worrying.

It said: "The GETFund was constituted to compliment the efforts of government and not to become the fulcrum around which everything in education today revolves."

The statement congratulated government for plans to build two more public universities but expressed the view that the capacity of some of the existing facilities have been under utilised. It said it was unrealistic and financially burdensome for the budget statement to introduce a tax regime which would enable the Driver, Vehicle and Licensing Authority to re-register vehicles every two years. NUGS said the budget statement failed to define a national policy on disaster preparedness and measures to put in place to deal with climate change related issues.

On the issue of over aged cars, the statement called for the banning of all 10 year-old vehicles.

"Government should revisit the banning of over 10 years cars because we do not have the technology to deal with the waste and its attendant impact on road accidents in the country," it said. The statement made an appeal to the government to speed up the passing of the National Youth Policy into law. NUGS asked the government to move away from the practice of successive governments that used the presentation of budget statements to deepen the country's political polarisation. "We wish to remind government that it is a national budget and not an NDC or NPP budget." The statement suggested the need for the government to endeavour to break the budget and policy document into workable details in order to allow for easy use and implementation. JA