Minority accuses the government of leaving massive debt in education sector

The Minority Caucus in Parliament has accused the government of leaving an alleged huge debt in the education sector due to its failure to meet its financial obligations to suppliers and partners such as the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC).

The Caucus claimed that the debt to WAEC was so substantial that it threatened to disrupt the academic calendar.

Mr Peter Nortsu-Kotoe, the Ranking Member on the Education Committee of Parliament, told some members of the Parliamentary Press Corps in Parliament on Thursday that “…WAEC has been forced to reschedule the marking of BECE scripts because the council has no money to fund the post-examination exercise.”

As a result, the Caucus has requested that the government release funds to WAEC so that it could mark the BECE scripts.

“The delay in marking has resulted in WAEC postponing the marking of scripts from this month to September, which will disrupt the school calendar,” Mr Nortsu-Kotoe said.

Dr Clement Apaak, the Deputy Ranking Member on the Education Committee, expressed concern over the government’s failure to pay suppliers of tablets worth over GH¢6 billion and other educational materials.

According to the National Democratic Congress Minority Caucus, the tablets were purchased as part of the Free Senior High School (SHS) programme, but the supplier was unable to receive payment due to an alleged lack of government allocation.

Dr Apaak told the press that while the programme of distributing free tablets to SHS students was commendable, its implementation had been problematic due to disparaging figures being given for the number distributed as well as the government’s indebtedness to the supplier.

The Minority is also concerned that the government was not providing accurate information about the distribution of the tablets, stating that “while the government claims to have distributed 900,000 tablets, the Minority had found that only 1,358,000 tablets were procured.

The supplier has been forced to take out a loan in dollar-denominated currencies to pay for the tablets, and is now struggling to pay back the loan,” Dr Apaak alleged.

The Minority also demanded answers from the government regarding the number of schools and students who had received the tablets.

“… We have found that several schools in our constituencies have not received the tablets, including Avers Senior High School and Bosa South Senior High School,” he told the press.

Source: GNA

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