THE PRESIDENT of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), Mr. Edward Bawa, has suggested that 5% of the salaries of beneficiaries of the students loan scheme should be deducted at source upon employment and employers should request Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) loans repayment certificates when employing beneficiaries.

The President made this known at a press conference held in Accra by the NUGS executives to throw light on the interim report on the students loan scheme which was presented early this month to the Minister of Education by the Committee appointed to restructure the scheme.

He stated that students should be encouraged and educated on the need to repay in good time the loans contracted from SSNIT.

SSNIT should make it less cumbersome for beneficiaries in the informal sector to pay off their indebtedness, adding that employers should be encouraged to assist SNIT, recover monies owed to it by their employees, he noted.

The President revealed that the government has stated that about 40% of the recurrent expenditure goes into the educational sector, which represents a very great chunk of government expenditure, adding that the allocation to education in the budget represents 3% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The NUGS President stated that Togo spends 6% of her GDP on education, Zambia 7% and South Africa as much as 15%

He explained that the government has to be committed towards education, if not tertiary education will gradually become a preserve of only the rich.

On his part, the NUGS Representative on the Education Fund, Mr. Godwin Sekyere disclosed that from June 2000 the amount in the education fund was ?528,000 million, adding that 'the money meant for the educational system is being kept".

In an interview, the NUGS President, Mr. Edward Bawa, told the Chronicle that one of their problems to address is how to assist the private tertiary institutions to get access to the SSNIT student loans scheme which will enable the students purchase their test books.