Politicising motion on tertiary fees absorption unfortunate – Africa Education Watch

Policy think-tank, Africa Education Watch has expressed disappointment in the rejection of a motion proposing to government to absorb tertiary fees this year.

This comes after the Bawku Central MP, Mahama Ayariga petitioned the Speaker of Parliament to request the approval to move a motion for the suspension of payment of admission fees for tertiary students in the 2020/21 academic year.

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In his view, it is worrying that students were paying huge sums of money before being allowed in schools, considering the adverse effect on the economic activities and livelihood of citizens.

He believes that many families are still struggling and cannot, therefore, afford the fees they are being asked to pay.

But, Parliament on Thursday shot down the motion which was proposed by Mr Ayariga.

In an interview with JoyNews’ Mamavi Owusu Aboagye on the AM Show, the Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare noted that it is rather unfortunate the legislators allowed politics to rule out the motion.

He said, “One would have wished that there was some consensus between both parties on the need to provide some subsidy or remove these financial barriers to reenrollment or access for many economical vulnerable learners.”

Politics took the better of the discussion yesterday and so it quite unfortunate that we allowed politics to drive this motion,” he said.

Mr Kofi Asare in his submission opined that there were issues with the motion and advised that moving forward, such motions should be concise.

I think probably we have learnt our mistakes and next time such a motion would probably have to come out much earlier and then also probably would have to package in a manner that makes it more succinct than it appears to be at it conception state.”

Source: MyJoyOnline.com