GRASAG Threatens Picketing At Flagstaff House For Unpaid Bursaries
President of the Graduate Students Association of Ghana has revealed that his outfit would picket the seat of government come on September 21, 2016 should government fail to release the bursary and thesis grant for the 2015/2016 academic.
At a press conference organized as part of the first senate meeting of the GRASAG at the Ghana Telecom University College today, Mr. Rashid Etuaful indicated that all efforts to compel government to release the grants had proved futile, resulting in conducting research that will be beneficial to national development.
Read the full statement below;
GRADUATE STUDENTS ASSOCIATION OF GHANA (GRASAG) PRESS STATEMENT READ BY THE NATIONAL GRASAG PRESIDENT (RASHID KWESI ETUAFUL) ON SATURDAY 10TH OF SEPTEMBER, 2016 AT GTUC
Ladies and gentlemen, Fellow students, Friends of the media, all protocol dully observed. Good morning and welcome to the press conference by the GRASAG NATIONAL. We have once again gathered as graduate students from all member institutions to talk about an issue that is generating concerns and becoming a great worry to every graduate student studying in Ghana. It has always been the case that we begin with pleasantries, but we do not believe that at this stage and the state in which we find ourselves as graduate students there is any such thing to do, we feel it is becoming overly worrying that yet another year we are going through this same old process to get the right thing done or what is due us.
This issue has to do with the excessive delay of the bursary and thesis grant given by the government of Ghana to the Ghanaian postgraduate student studying in this country to facilitate their research work. Over the past few years the excessive delay of allowance has caused students to go through unbearable hardship. Particularly in the completion of our research work and many students find themselves stranded on the field collecting data.
We gather here today to put across the following intent and concerns to the government of Ghana and the Scholarship Secretariat that provides this grants to the students.
Let’s get the context right;
A BRIEF HISTORY
The annual bursary and thesis grants are among five (5) types of scholarships for Public Universities under the Local Tertiary Scholarship awards of the Scholarships Secretariat of the Republic of Ghana. The Secretariat was established in January, 1960 as an extra-ministerial body under the Office of the President with a duty to administer and exercise central control over scholarship awards for capacity building so as to ensure effective manpower support for the national development agenda.
The thesis grants are payments made to PhD, MPhil and MA/Postgraduate Diploma students working on their research for one academic year, while the bursary grants are paid uniformly across board annually to mitigate the course cost of postgraduate education. The continuous payment of these grants and allowances, demonstrates the fact that governments over the years appreciate the significance of postgraduate education and research to our national economy.
The Association therefore wonders “why the payment of the grants, which has been fixed as low as GHc450.00 for Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Master of Arts (MA) students, as well as GHc470.00 and GHc700.00 for Master of
Philosophy and PhD students respectively”, has been delayed amazingly to the extent that the academic year has virtually ended.
We have therefore gathered here to;
CONCLUSION
Fellow students, the Press, Ladies and gentlemen, as Student leaders we have gone through all due processes to ensure timely release of the thesis and bursary grants for 2015/2016 academic year. The questions on our lips are as follows what is causing the undue delay in releasing the funds? Don’t we as a country have funds to support our educational system? We deserve to know!
We hope and pray that through this press conference His Excellency John Dramani Mahama hear the extent we have come with our sector ministers and direct the finance minister to heed our call. Otherwise we will have no option than picket the seat of government on the 21st of September.
GRASAG NATIONAL directs that all institutions must fully participate in the upcoming events, students from members institutions should join the legal, positive call to demand for what is due us. Other directives for the events will be communicated to member institutions and subsequently graduate students.
We will do this in the interest of graduate research and national development.
LONG LIVE GRASAG
LONG LIVE GHANA
THANK YOU
RASHID KWESI ETUAFU
GRASAG NATIONAL PRESIDENT.
By: Radio Univers 105.7 FM
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- Prompt His Excellency the President of the Republic of Ghana and the Government of the undue delay of the bursary and thesis grant. Indeed we have exhausted the ministerial option
- Call on the Government of Ghana (that is Minister of Finance), to release the needed funds to pay the bursary and thesis grant.
- Appeal to the Government of Ghana to establish a permanent solution to solve this recurring undue delay in the disbursement of the bursary and thesis grant.
- Call for immediate measures to ensure an increment in the bursary and thesis grant since it is evidentially clear that the current allowance given to the graduate student is woefully inadequate. The loud un-communicated effect of this delay is that post-graduate education and research in Ghana for the past year is crawling to a halt and this stifles educational development. We have waited enough. We have exhausted all avenues available and have duly followed the laid down and required procedure and will not be able to wait any longer. We believe that the minister of finance should be able to mobilize and release the cheques to the scholarship secretariat by Friday 16th September 2016. We are serving notice should the minister of finance fail to meet the 16th September deadline, all members and member institutions should join the national GRASAG to picket on the 21st OF SEPTEMBER 2016 at the flagstaff house to demonstrate our displeasure for the undue delay of our thesis and bursary grant.
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