Accra, June 16, GNA - The Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) said on Thursday that it received approval of Parliament to spend a total of 1.1 trillion cedis this year. The expenditure would be on projects and programmes in public tertiary and pre-tertiary institutions as well as agencies of education and a limited assistance to privately-owned universities.

A statement signed in Accra by Mr Fosuaba Mensah Banahene, Administrator of the Fund, said as required by law, the Board of Trustees had submitted its annual reports for 2001-2003. "The 2004 report is being finalised for submission to the appropriate quarters by next month." Mr Banahene said each report gave details of the projects being undertaken as well as an audited statement of account, adding that the Board would soon publish the list of projects and programmes that had been reported on so far.

"Until then, interested individuals can visit the offices of the GETFund or the Ministry of Education and Sports for any relevant information." Mr Banahene said the Fund had a great potential to make a difference in the education sector and urged members of the public to endeavour to obtain the appropriate information from the Secretariat of the Fund before going to the media.

"While waiting for the enactment of a Legislative Instrument to effectively operationalise the parent law, the Board of Trustees will do its best to do things that as far as possible reflect the spirit of the law. "It is certainly not easy to operate under a law that has many grey areas and yet without a Legislative Instrument." Mr Banahene said in line with the policy directive given by the Minister of Education, the Board of Trustees of the Fund would concentrate on teacher education, technical and vocational training at the pre-tertiary level. He said sufficient funds had been allocated for improvements in the infrastructure needs of the various teacher-training colleges, especially in the areas of libraries and science laboratories.