Poly Students Cry For More Cash

THE STUDENTS Representative Council (SRC) of the Accra Polytechnic has called on government to increase the loan amount of students under the new Students' Loan Trust Fund (SLTF).

The SRC maintained that the loan under SLTF was woefully inadequate and could not meet their average academic expenditures.

Ernest Annoh-Affoh, the SRC President, made this known at a press conference in Accra yesterday.

According to him, the loan amount given to students under SLTF was a pittance and unpleasing to them, unlike the Social Security and National Insurance (SSNIT) loan scheme.

“With the SSNIT loan scheme, all students were given four hundred Ghana Cedis, but students who sign up with the SLTF are being given an amount of GH¢300 and GH¢280 depending on the student's course”.

He said the SLTF was supposed to be a better alternative to the SSNIT students' loan scheme, but I must say SLTF is becoming a failure.

He called on the Ministry of Education, through the SLTF Board, to increase the amount by about 60%.

Touching on the GETFund , the SRC president stated that the GETFund Board had not updated them on the amount left for government to settle as debt since they were aware government was owning the Fund GH¢54,900,000.

“We students have the right to the state of the GETFund arrears.”
He called on government to nominate new representatives for the Polytechnic Governing Council as the old council's term of office ended three years ago, to avoid tension in the institutions.

Commenting on the scholarship awards to students, Annoh-Affoh stated that students who had qualified for the scheme and had processed and submitted their forms for the Ghana Government bursary award had not yet received their benefits for the 2005/2006 academic year. He mentioned that if the scheme has been stopped, then the appropriate office or body should notify them to stop them from further committing their scarce resources into it.