Complete unfinished infrastructural projects on campuses - Prof. Owusu Gyapong

The Chairman of the Vice-Chancellors Association of Ghana (VCAG), Professor John Owusu Gyapong, has entreated government to prioritize adequate resources into completing educational infrastructure in the country to meet the demands of the large number of students seeking admission into tertiary institutions in the country.

He said this in an interview with TV3’s Emmanuel Samani.

Prof. Gyapong, who is also the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Health and Allied Sciences in Ho, commenting on the deficit of infrastructure in the educational sector said “we know about the history of GETFund which was established many years ago to facilitate the development of infrastructure on our campuses, now it applies almost to all our educational institutions.

“The truth of the matter is that, there have been some challenges as far as the financing of GETFund is concerned and for which reason there are many buildings, if you go to our campuses you’ll see buildings that have not been completed and therefore are not being used.”

“So we’ve put a lot of money into these buildings, some are 30%, 40%, up to 90% complete but because they are not complete, we cannot use them. So what we are saying is that, as far as we are concerned, government should prioritize resources into completion of these infrastructure so that we can have access to them, so that in the next few years, our many students who want access to tertiary education can have access to tertiary education.”

The Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) is a public trust set up by an act of parliament in the year 2000, under the auspices of the erstwhile Kuffour administration, with the core mandate to provide funding to supplement government efforts to provide adequate educational infrastructure and facilities within the public sector from the pre-tertiary to the tertiary level in all parts of the country devoid of discrimination.