{"id":70429,"date":"2024-04-08T16:20:22","date_gmt":"2024-04-08T16:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/?p=70429"},"modified":"2024-04-08T16:10:36","modified_gmt":"2024-04-08T16:10:36","slug":"the-current-scheme-makes-the-president-dispenser-of-scholarships-this-is-ridiculous-must-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/the-current-scheme-makes-the-president-dispenser-of-scholarships-this-is-ridiculous-must-change","title":{"rendered":"The current scheme makes the president dispenser of scholarships; this is ridiculous & must change"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Ghana. <\/strong><\/span>The government scholarships for academic or professional study must not be awarded or administered on a discretionary or opaque basis by a non-academic entity located at or under the Presidency, the Executive Director of the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Professor H Kwasi Prempah, has said.<\/b><\/p>\n

He observed that the existing scholarship scheme essentially makes the President the ultimate dispenser of scholarships. This he added, is \u2018ridiculous\u2019 and needs to change.<\/p>\n

In a Facebook post, he said \u201cThe Scholarship Secretariat should be scrapped. Government scholarships for academic or professional study must not be awarded or administered on a discretionary or opaque basis by a non-academic entity located at or under the Presidency and headed by a patronage appointee of the President.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe existing structure, probably dating back to the early years of this Republic, essentially makes the President the ultimate dispenser of scholarships. This is ridiculous and needs to change!<\/p>\n

\u201cAll government scholarships for graduate or professional study must be administered in an open and competitive fashion by independent, inter-departmental committees of designated public universities on the basis of merit and need (both individual and national), using transparent eligibility, application, and selection criteria and procedures. Award decisions must be published.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo government scholarship should be awarded for undergraduate study abroad. Beneficiaries of government scholarships must be required to fulfill specified minimum post-completion public service obligations. It is about time this country did the needful things properly and for the good of the country as a whole. Time to scrap the plenty crappy stuff that continue to keep this country down and behind. It would take enlightened and patriotic leadership!\u201d<\/p>\n

Publish names of all recipients of scholarships every year \u2013 Bentil<\/p>\n

He was commenting on a recent publication by the Fourth Estate dubbed \u2018Scholarship Bonanza\u2019 alleging, among other things, that scholarships are being unfairly distributed to well-connected affluent individuals.<\/p>\n

The Fourth Estate in its latest publication christened \u2018Scholarship Bonanza\u2019 has named persons close to key government officials as beneficiaries of scholarships that it deems inappropriate. But the Registrar maintains the secretariat did nothing wrong.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Registrar of the Scholarship Secretariat, Dr Kingsley Agyemang, has called for a law to be passed to streamline the distribution of scholarships in the country.<\/p>\n

This in his view will address the misconceptions about the scheme.<\/p>\n

He highlights the current challenge faced by officers in making decisions due to the absence of clear legislation defining who qualifies as a needy individual for a scholarship.<\/p>\n

According to him, even though the acquisition of scholarships under his watch has been decentralized and digitized to minimize centralized discretion and to enhance the openness of the process, many still hold misconceptions about how scholarships are issued.<\/p>\n

Scholarship Secretariat Boss calls for a law to regulate who qualifies for scholarship and who doesn\u2019t<\/p>\n

Dr Agyemang\u2019s stance comes in response to a recent publication by the Fourth Estate dubbed \u2018Scholarship Bonanza\u2019 alleging, among other things, that scholarships are being unfairly distributed to well-connected affluent individuals.<\/p>\n

However, in an interview Dr Agyemang emphasizes the necessity of legislation to dispel any misconceptions about eligibility criteria.<\/p>\n

\u201cSorry to say that there is no establishment Act for the Scholarship Secretariat. It\u2019s been an issue that needs public discussions. There\u2019s no enabling Act. So looking into the future, I think we need a scholarship Act.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to him, the claims that middle-income earners are unjustly benefiting from the scholarships and that such persons do not need to benefit from them are untenable, as many of the so-called middle-income earners in Ghana are largely civil servants whose incomes are nothing to write home about.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Ghana, those we usually refer to as middle-income earners are public sector workers. Or those that we are defining as middle-income earners, are they really middle-income earners in tandem with best practices or best economic conditions?\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that \u201cCivil servants are largely paid between a 100 dollars or maybe 300 dollars, and you call that one a middle-income earner? So of course, every Ghanaian qualifies except the high earners. Who is a needy person? How do you guys assess who a needy person is?\u201d<\/p>\n

He believes that a scholarship legislation, if introduced, will set out comprehensive parameters for how funds ought to be administered and who deserves to benefit, adding that such a law must be crafted in line with the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) in tandem with the country\u2019s priorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo looking into the future, I think a scholarship legislation is so eminent and that will set out everything that we need to do and how the funds need to be managed. It\u2019s been managed over the years by the dexterity of leaders; what they think is so important. This can be done in conjunction with maybe the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) to identify priority areas that as Ghanaians we need to focus on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source: 3News<\/b><\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Ghana<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Ghana. The government scholarships for academic or professional study must not be awarded or administered on a discretionary or opaque basis by a non-academic entity located at or under the Presidency, the Executive Director of the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Professor H Kwasi Prempah, has said. He observed that the existing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":70428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[5092,5096,429],"class_list":["post-70429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-ghana","tag-ghana"],"yoast_head":"\nThe current scheme makes the president dispenser of scholarships; this is ridiculous & must change - Ghana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The government scholarships for academic or professional study must not be awarded or administered on a discretionary ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/the-current-scheme-makes-the-president-dispenser-of-scholarships-this-is-ridiculous-must-change\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The current scheme makes the president dispenser of scholarships; this is ridiculous & must change\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The government scholarships for academic or professional study must not be awarded or administered on a discretionary ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/the-current-scheme-makes-the-president-dispenser-of-scholarships-this-is-ridiculous-must-change\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ghana\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-04-08T16:20:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/ghana\/sites\/18\/2024\/04\/sm_1712579944.884186.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/the-current-scheme-makes-the-president-dispenser-of-scholarships-this-is-ridiculous-must-change#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/the-current-scheme-makes-the-president-dispenser-of-scholarships-this-is-ridiculous-must-change\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"The current scheme makes the president dispenser of scholarships; this is ridiculous & must change\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-04-08T16:20:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/the-current-scheme-makes-the-president-dispenser-of-scholarships-this-is-ridiculous-must-change\"},\"wordCount\":839,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/the-current-scheme-makes-the-president-dispenser-of-scholarships-this-is-ridiculous-must-change#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/ghana\/sites\/18\/2024\/04\/sm_1712579944.884186.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Ghana\",\"ghana\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/the-current-scheme-makes-the-president-dispenser-of-scholarships-this-is-ridiculous-must-change#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/the-current-scheme-makes-the-president-dispenser-of-scholarships-this-is-ridiculous-must-change\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/the-current-scheme-makes-the-president-dispenser-of-scholarships-this-is-ridiculous-must-change\",\"name\":\"The current scheme makes the president dispenser of scholarships; this is ridiculous & must change - Ghana\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/the-current-scheme-makes-the-president-dispenser-of-scholarships-this-is-ridiculous-must-change#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/the-current-scheme-makes-the-president-dispenser-of-scholarships-this-is-ridiculous-must-change#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/ghana\/sites\/18\/2024\/04\/sm_1712579944.884186.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-04-08T16:20:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"The government scholarships for academic or professional study must not be awarded or administered on a discretionary ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/the-current-scheme-makes-the-president-dispenser-of-scholarships-this-is-ridiculous-must-change#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/the-current-scheme-makes-the-president-dispenser-of-scholarships-this-is-ridiculous-must-change\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/the-current-scheme-makes-the-president-dispenser-of-scholarships-this-is-ridiculous-must-change#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/ghana\/sites\/18\/2024\/04\/sm_1712579944.884186.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/ghana\/sites\/18\/2024\/04\/sm_1712579944.884186.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":720,\"caption\":\"The current scheme makes the president dispenser of scholarships; this is ridiculous & must change\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/the-current-scheme-makes-the-president-dispenser-of-scholarships-this-is-ridiculous-must-change#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The current scheme makes the president dispenser of scholarships; this is ridiculous & must change\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/\",\"name\":\"Ghana\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The current scheme makes the president dispenser of scholarships; this is ridiculous & must change - Ghana","description":"The government scholarships for academic or professional study must not be awarded or administered on a discretionary ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/the-current-scheme-makes-the-president-dispenser-of-scholarships-this-is-ridiculous-must-change","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The current scheme makes the president dispenser of scholarships; this is ridiculous & must change","og_description":"The government scholarships for academic or professional study must not be awarded or administered on a discretionary ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/the-current-scheme-makes-the-president-dispenser-of-scholarships-this-is-ridiculous-must-change","og_site_name":"Ghana","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2024-04-08T16:20:22+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/ghana\/sites\/18\/2024\/04\/sm_1712579944.884186.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/the-current-scheme-makes-the-president-dispenser-of-scholarships-this-is-ridiculous-must-change#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/the-current-scheme-makes-the-president-dispenser-of-scholarships-this-is-ridiculous-must-change"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"The current scheme makes the president dispenser of scholarships; this is ridiculous & must change","datePublished":"2024-04-08T16:20:22+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/the-current-scheme-makes-the-president-dispenser-of-scholarships-this-is-ridiculous-must-change"},"wordCount":839,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/the-current-scheme-makes-the-president-dispenser-of-scholarships-this-is-ridiculous-must-change#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/ghana\/sites\/18\/2024\/04\/sm_1712579944.884186.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Ghana","ghana"],"articleSection":["all news","files"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/the-current-scheme-makes-the-president-dispenser-of-scholarships-this-is-ridiculous-must-change#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/the-current-scheme-makes-the-president-dispenser-of-scholarships-this-is-ridiculous-must-change","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/the-current-scheme-makes-the-president-dispenser-of-scholarships-this-is-ridiculous-must-change","name":"The current scheme makes the president dispenser of scholarships; this is ridiculous & must change - Ghana","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/the-current-scheme-makes-the-president-dispenser-of-scholarships-this-is-ridiculous-must-change#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/the-current-scheme-makes-the-president-dispenser-of-scholarships-this-is-ridiculous-must-change#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/ghana\/sites\/18\/2024\/04\/sm_1712579944.884186.jpg","datePublished":"2024-04-08T16:20:22+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"The government scholarships for academic or professional study must not be awarded or administered on a discretionary ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/the-current-scheme-makes-the-president-dispenser-of-scholarships-this-is-ridiculous-must-change#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/the-current-scheme-makes-the-president-dispenser-of-scholarships-this-is-ridiculous-must-change"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/the-current-scheme-makes-the-president-dispenser-of-scholarships-this-is-ridiculous-must-change#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/ghana\/sites\/18\/2024\/04\/sm_1712579944.884186.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/ghana\/sites\/18\/2024\/04\/sm_1712579944.884186.jpg","width":1280,"height":720,"caption":"The current scheme makes the president dispenser of scholarships; this is ridiculous & must change"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/the-current-scheme-makes-the-president-dispenser-of-scholarships-this-is-ridiculous-must-change#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The current scheme makes the president dispenser of scholarships; this is ridiculous & must change"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/","name":"Ghana","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}