Tema Launches Education Endowment Fund

Tema, (Greater Accra) 20 Oct. District Assemblies have been urged to set up endowment funds to finance the education of genuinely needy children. The move will relieve Ghanaians whose remuneration fall far below the internationally accepted minimum wage of four dollars a day. Dr Eric Kwei, managing director of Pioneer Food Cannery (PFC), said this at the fourth biennial speech and prize-giving day of Tema Methodist Day Secondary School at the weekend. He said the judicious management of endowment funds would enable needy children to benefit from the essential tools of education on a continuous basis. He said the loan scheme introduced by the government for students in tertiary institutions has been of immense help to many students. He said the yearly threat of payment of user fees ''becomes more and more real as subsidies on university education are gradually being removed''. Dr Kwei, a former Zoology lecturer of the University of Ghana, Legon, conceded that cost-sharing as a means of cost-recovery in tertiary education is not a bad idea in itself. ''But it raises the fundamental question of how to secure educational opportunities for those who cannot afford to pay, looking at the poor salary levels in Ghana...''