The University Students’ Association of Ghana (USAG) has commended the Government for its decision to provide 15,000 slots for prospective tertiary students who benefited from the free Senior High School programme and have gained admission into various universities.
The NPP earlier this month announced that it has set aside an estimated amount of GHS20 million to cater for these beneficiaries for the 2020/2021 academic year.
Addressing the media at a press briefing, President of USAG, Paul Abrokwah stated that though the move will go a long way to give hope to the free SHS beneficiaries, they are appealing for more slots.
“We are commending the government for the adoption of 15,000 free SHS students that would be going to the various universities. We also want to commend government that for the first time in history, this country has decided to employ graduates to the Ghana Education Service without any political affiliation. This is worth commending. But we are urging them to do more. We want them to extend this to the various private universities so that others who attend the private universities can also benefit from this,” he said.
They however cautioned politicians who intend to engage the services of its members during the December 7th polls to look elsewhere.
“We are asking the political leaders or parties to stay away from our constituents. They are not agents of political violence. We don’t want them to use them at all because should there be a problem, the union will not defend anybody. During the registration exercise. We saw a lot of them who petitioned the office of USAG to speak on the issue, but we decided not to speak because we warned them not to engage in any activity that will cause violence. So this time too, we are sending the same warning to political parties not to use our constituents, they can use any other person or their family members,” he said.