Full Cost Recovery violates 1992 constitution

The National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) has described as a violation of the 1992 constitution, the proposed policy of Full Cost Recovery (FCR) by the Committee of Vice Chancellors and Principals.

It said the 1992 constitution ensured the equal right to education for all as well as the accessibility of higher education to all on the basis of capacity by every appropriate means and in particular by progressive introduction of free education.

Edward Kofi Omane Boamah, President of the NUGS, said this at a press conference on Wednesday in Accra. He said NUGS was surprised that the committee did not consider the many options available for funding tertiary education but only succeeded in heightening the strain on poor students.

The NUGS president said although the government stated that about 40 percent of its recurrent expenditure went into the educational sector which represented a greater chunk of government expenditure, "our commitment as a nation is less than three percent of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a contravention of the Association of African Universities (AAU) Policy of five to seven percent of GDP".

He said although students in Ghana were willing to discuss issues confronting their educational system with a view to reaching a consensus, any attempt to impose new fees on students would be met with "an immediate and unpleasant action". Boamah said NUGS was resolute in its struggle to resist what he described at ' commodification' of education in Ghana.