The government of Ghana is going to rely on direct budget funding and the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETfund) to finance the free boarding for students in deprived communities across the country, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Deputy Minister of Education (Tertiary) has revealed.

The programme is expected to take effect from the 2016/17 academic year, which begins in August, and has been projected to benefit about 120,000 students out of the 504,882 for the first term.

Explaining how the programme is going be funded in an interview with Prince Minkah, host of the Executive Breakfast Show (EBS) on Class91.3FM on Tuesday June 28, Mr Ablakwa said: “[With] the source of funding, for now we are using both direct budget funding and the GETfund to support us. We already had made provision in the 2016 budget and GETfund formula so we are using these two sources to finance this intervention.”

He further explained that the free boarding system was an expanded phase of the Progressively Free Senior High School programme introduced by President John Dramani Mahama.

“The progressively free SHS enters an expanded phase from August this year, at the beginning of the 2016/17 academic year. We began absorbing 10 items on the bill for some 340,000 day students and we began with absorbing examination fees, library fees, entertainment fees, SRC dues, and science development fees, mathematics and science quiz fees, sports fees, culture fees, internet fees, and co-curricular activities fees,” he said.

Mr Ablakwa added: “The new frontier we are entering is to cover boarders in deprived districts and boarders who are really struggling to pay their fees. It is a targeted intervention.

“We have projected 120,000 students to enjoy this intervention beginning from August this year, so we are talking about 120,000 out of the current 504,882 boarders… We are looking at some 24 per cent of this figure that we are beginning with.”