Rise in fee paying courses worrying – Christian Council

The General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana, Rev. Dr. Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong, has bemoaned the current state in the country’s educational sector where most of the “essential courses” pursued at the university are now fee paying.

According to him, “essential courses” such as engineering, medicine, pharmacy, optometry, law, dentistry and others have now become very expensive courses which most Ghanaians, especially those with poor economic backgrounds cannot afford.

“In almost all the public universities in Ghana today, parents should be ready to pay about GH10,000 per each academic year if they want their children to study medicine, pharmacy, engineering etc. This amount excludes hostel fees and other facilities/equipment they will have to pay for. This is because, the universities now admits very few students as regular students and give the other many qualified students the option to enroll as Ghanaian fee paying students,” he explained.

Rev Opuni-Frimpong expressed these concerns in his sermon to induct Rev. Fr. Abraham Quarshie as the new Resident Minister of the Tema Joint Church last Sunday in Tema.

He continued that, university education in Ghana has now become a matter of affordability, adding that, this situation is undermining the ability of intelligent students from low economic backgrounds to pursue such essential courses, thereby worsening the gap between the rich and poor.

“The study of pharmacy, medicine and engineering has now become the reserve of the rich in our society. This is further worsening the inequalities within our educational sector” he lamented

Rev. Opuni-Frimpong said in the past, the National Students Loan Trust was expected to cushion students in catering for some of their educational expenses. However, the amount given to students is woefully inadequate and cannot support students to pay such expensive fees.

He called on government and other stakeholders in the educational sector to discuss how to quickly find a lasting solution to this rising cost in university education

Touching on managing expectations in his sermon, he noted that, one of the complex things in leadership is managing expectations, noting that, if expectations are not properly managed, it can lead to confusion.

“Every leader has an expectation and those expectations must properly be managed to benefit the larger interest of the body the leader represents. In the same way, those following the leader also have their expectations which they want their leader to respond to. In all these, every good leader must learn how to manage his/her expectations and respond to the genuine expectations of his/her followers” he revealed.

The new Resident Minister of the Tema Joint Church, who was inducted into office by the Anglican Bishop of Accra, Rt. Rev. Dr. Daniel Torto in his acceptance remarks expressed his gratitude to God for the opportunity granted him to lead the church.

He asked all the members of the church to support him to grow the church spiritually and numerically, stressing that, “a good leader listens, learns and leads”.

Rev. Abraham Quarshie who is on secondment from the Anglican Church has served in various Parishes of the Church and holds a Master of Arts in Guidance and Counselling from the University of Cape Coast.