The National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) has dismissed the Ministry of Education’s assertion that students are adequately represented on the Scholarship Authority Board through civil society organisations.
In an interview with Citi News, NUGS President Rashid Ibrahim Esq. maintained that existing legislation, including the GETFund Act, clearly recognises NUGS as the official representative body for students. He stressed that student representation on the Scholarship Authority Board must be expressly provided for in law rather than left to interpretation.
The union is therefore demanding an urgent amendment to the Scholarship Authority Act to formally guarantee student representation on the board.
According to Ibrahim, NUGS had consistently called for a clear legal provision mandating the appointment of a student representative nominated by the union, similar to what exists under the GETFund Act. He noted that requests for renewed stakeholder engagement with the Minister of Education were also ignored. Despite assurances that the law would be amended to include student representation, the Act was passed and the board inaugurated without a student member—a development he described as a breach of trust.
Ibrahim warned that failure by the Ministry to address the issue would compel NUGS to escalate the matter to the highest levels of government. He said the union would petition the President, the Speaker of Parliament, and the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education, adding that Ghanaian students would not allow the issue to be ignored if it remains unresolved.
