President set on an increase in tertiary enrolments

Worried about the low level of gross tertiary education enrolment in Ghana, the government is implementing wide-ranging measures to increase enrolment from the current 18.8% to 40% by 2030, including the establishment of an Open University and changes to student loan requirements.

In his state of the nation address to parliament on 9 March, President Nano Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said that, 64 years after independence, “We still do not have the critical mass of tertiary education graduates that is required for our socio-economic transformation.

“We must, therefore, introduce measures to increase, consciously, the proportion of our population with relevant tertiary education to accelerate the transformation of our country,” he said as he outlined the target of 40%.

“This will be achieved by significantly increasing enrolment in existing public and private universities and through the establishment of an Open University. We expect record numbers of enrolment over the next four years,” he said.

Growing enrolments

As part of the move to increase the enrolment rate, President Akufo-Addo said the government would remove the ‘guarantor requirement’ that made it difficult for most students to apply for loans through the Student Loan Trust Fund programme.

Under this system, a working person provides a guarantee for any student who applies for a student loan.

The president said the government was committed to the growth of science, technology, engineering and mathematics-related fields, with emphasis on engineering.

For this reason, Akufo-Addo said, the government would continue with the development of 20 centres and eight model science senior high schools across the country.

“These institutions will be fitted with state-of-the-art equipment and laboratories, which will facilitate teaching and learning in all areas, including artificial intelligence and robotics,” he said.

The initiatives announced by Akufo-Addo come shortly after the announcement of the global QS university rankings on 4 March, which showed that Ghanaian higher education fared well in fields such as forestry and agriculture as well as health sciences.

Technical and vocational education

Akufo-Addo was grateful to parliament for passing the Education Regulatory Bodies Act, 2020 (Act 1023), which he said, has established the Commission for Technical and Vocational Education and Training and the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Service, adding that, “all these [initiatives] will help to streamline the delivery of TVET, and avoid overlaps and duplication”.

The government will also be building 32 TVET institutions across the country.

In line with the government’s commitment to tackle the issue of youth unemployment through TVET, the government will start with the implementation of the Ghana jobs and skills project, which seeks to expedite the development of competency-based training curricula this year.

As part of the National TVET Qualification Framework, 100 trades or professions on various qualification levels will be established; 25,000 beneficiaries will be trained and entrepreneurial support will be provided to about 50,000 individuals.

Akufo-Addo said the government would also implement the Ghana Labour Market Information System, and upgrade district public employment centres and services.

Examination integrity

Another key objective as part of efforts to improve quality education and to ensure that students become globally competitive is to maintain the integrity of Ghana’s examinations and assessment. New measures to curb examination leakages and malpractices are on the cards.

The president said the first cohort of students under the Free Senior High School policy implemented in 2017 wrote their final examinations last year.

About 60% of the candidates scored good marks in all core subjects, including English and mathematics, which qualified them for tertiary education.

He acknowledged that teachers were at the centre of every reform in the field of education and prioritising the welfare of teachers remains a key objective of government.

“After the restoration of teacher training allowances, government is now paying professional allowances to both teaching and non-teaching staff.

“I am happy to announce that the government is facilitating the acquisition of 280,000 laptops for members of the Ghana National Association of Teachers, the National Association of Graduate Teachers and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers this year,” Akufo-Addo said.