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| Ghana Education Service |
The GH¢3 million is to help these institutions purchase additional furniture to enable them increase their intake for the 2013/2014 academic year.
The allocation of funds forms part of government’s efforts to assist public tertiary institutions to absorb the two streams of graduates who wrote the 2013 West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
Briefing journalists on the outcome of a meeting held by President John Dramani Mahama and heads of the various tertiary institutions, a Deputy Minister of Information, Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed, said the President had assured that there was no cause for alarm by qualified students who applied for admission into the various tertiary institutions, as arrangements had been made to accommodate them.
The meeting centred on how to absorb the huge number of SHS graduates for the 2013/2014 academic year.
Mr Murtala Muhammed noted that the public tertiary institutions had also decided to increase enrollment for the academic year to absorb the huge number of Senior High School (SHS) graduates.
While some of the universities would increase admission by 15 per cent, other universities have decided to increase their intake by as much as 100 per cent.
Giving a breakdown on the enrollment increases, Mr Murtala Muhammed, said the University of Ghana would increase enrollment by 15 per cent; University for Professional Studies, 100 per cent; Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) would admit an additional 25-35 per cent; University of Mines in Tarkwa, 15 per cent; while the University of Education, Winneba has space for an additional 40-60 per cent.
The University for Development Studies and the two new universities in Ho and Sunyani have additional space for 2013.The deputy minister said the polytechnics would be able to admit double intake for last year, which represents 100 per cent increment in admissions.
He said about 409,000 candidates sat the WASSCE examinations in 2013 and the average pass rate of WASSCE over the years had been about 70 per cent.
“Even among those who pass, not everyone opts for tertiary education for various reasons. Many are those who opt for various professional skills training not provided by our traditional tertiary institutions,” he stressed.
Mr Murtala Muhammed said the colleges of education had always admitted below capacity due to the quota system and said the system would be scrapped to enable them to admit double their current intake.
“The Colleges of Education are now tertiary institutions so government plans to withdraw the allowances to new entrants there and rather offer them student loans like all other tertiary students,” Mr. Murtala Mohammed said.
The deputy minister said most private university colleges would be able to absorb additional demands that could be generated after what the public universities could absorb.
He also indicated that the student’s loans scheme would be extended to students of private universities to ease the burden on them.
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