SLTF: The Cry Of The Tertiary Student

It is not wrong and even not out of order for a Ghanaian child to enjoy the tertiary education to the fullest in our modern state (Ghana). Indeed, it is a fundamental human right for each and every individual within the four walls of this country to experience and enjoy the aesthetic nature of Education in our contemporary world.

The etymology of Student Loan Trust Fund (SLTF) was that, it was established in December 2005, under the Trustee Incorporation Act 1962, Act 820 with the main focus and objective of providing financial support and resource for the sound management of the trust for the benefit of students and to help promote and facilitate the national ideals enshrined in Article 28 and 38 of the 1992 constitution.

Pursuant to Article 28 clause 4 and article 38 clause 1, the establishment of this Trust Fund is not out of order and indeed it's a good course in the right direction.

Maybe, I have taken from a different angle, and I stand to be corrected! For some time now, if my memory serves me right, this Trust Fund is doing more harm than good. Delay in disbursement of funds from the outfit of SLTF is like a ritual and it keeps on deepening a lot of wounds and breaking hearts of vulnerable tertiary students. I don't think this fund was established to stage this agenda.

Last Academic year, this same delay in disbursement led to the temporal closure of Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) pursuant to some serious agitations by the students on campus. The broad picture looks very uninspiring and very scary.

As it stands now, Lecturers have been asked to submit their end of semester questions, meanwhile, students are been chased out of lecture halls, some are being denied to partake in mid-semester exams, noticed boards being flooded with names of unregistered students, some receiving unnecessary calls which ends up with..."The institution deleting your name from the system" and so on. I don't think this is the kind of picture the Trust Fund wants to paint. Enough of the excuses and explanations because we are tired.

This time around, we appeal to the Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education, Prof. Kwesi Yankah to come to our aid, because we are going through hell.

We also take this opportunity to congratulate the newly elected NUGS president, Mr. Isaac Jay Hyde, and urge him to take this situation very serious and treat it with the necessary attention needed. This issue must be resolved immediately.

Thank you.
By: Adjei Boakye Benjamin
Concerned student
(0552905813)
(0249809445)
Philip K. Amoah
(Aspiring Assembly Member)
(0554884535)
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