The National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) has described its exclusion from the newly constituted Scholarship Authority Board as a betrayal of trust.
Speaking on the Channel One Newsroom on Friday January 9, NUGS President, Rashid Ibrahim, said the union was promised representation on the Scholarship Authority Board during consultations prior to the passage of the Act. However, he noted that the law has now been passed and the board inaugurated without a single representative from NUGS.
According to him, the development has left students disappointed and concerned about their exclusion from decisions that directly affect their welfare.
“We are objecting to the fact that there was an earlier promise during our stakeholders engagement that the NUGS will have a representative on the Scholarship Authority Board. But surprisingly the Act was passed, the board has been formed three days ago. We do not have a NUGS representative on the board. We see this as a betrayal of trust,” he said.
This comes after the union rejected claims by the Ministry of Education that students are adequately represented under a civil society umbrella on the board. He argued that NUGS is not a civil society organisation but the legally recognised body mandated to represent Ghanaian students.
He cited the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) Act as a clear example where the law explicitly provides for a student representative nominated by NUGS, stressing that the same standard should apply to the Scholarship Authority.
NUGS called for an urgent amendment to the Scholarship Authority Act to clearly and unambiguously guarantee student representation on the board through a NUGS-appointed member.
Mr. Ibrahim warned that the union will escalate the matter if the Ministry of Education fails to respond to its concerns.
“If the ministry does not respond to our call, we intend to write an official petition to the President and the Speaker of Parliament and the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education for this issue to be addressed because if this issue is not addressed, I don’t think that the Ghanaian students will allow this matter to rest and as president, I will not even feel happy,” he added.
NUGS maintains that its demands are not confrontational but aimed at protecting the collective interests of Ghanaian students and ensuring transparency and fairness in the governance of the Scholarship Authority.
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