Fee Paying Policy by public universities not discriminatory – Supreme Court
The Fee Paying Policy, being implemented by Public Universities is not discriminatory, the Supreme Court (SC) has ruled.
In a unanimous decision on Wednesday, the SC noted that the policy also did not contravene Article 17, 25 and 38 of the 1992 Constitution.
This was after the nine-member panel dismissed the application put in by the Federation of Youth Association of Ghana (FEDYAG), an advocacy group based at West Ridge, Accra.
According to the SC, the federation had not been able to demonstrate to it how the policy contravened the Constitution.
It noted that the policy was being implemented world-wide and in some instance parents and other stakeholders’ efforts had been tapped through cost sharing.
The court, however, did not award any cost but congratulated the group for coming out to seeking interpretations of the 1992 Constitution.
It commended the group for the bold step, saying that, if they had not come to test the law it would only be gathering dust on the shelves.
“Don’t be heart-broken,” Mr Justice William Atugubah, who presided, told the group.
The SC noted that the fee paying policy was brought to supplement government efforts, saying the goals of Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE), which was introduced 19 years ago, had been realised because of increased enrolment.
The Federation of Youth Association of Ghana had gone to the SC to demand the interpretation of the citizen’s rights to education in the Constitution.
The Federation was claiming that the Public Universities had been “selling” spaces to people based on their economic status and not their intellectual abilities.
The plaintiff claimed that this action breached Articles 17, 25, and 38 of the Constitution, because under the Constitution, tertiary education was to be made “progressively free”.
The plaintiff asked the court to interpret these articles of the Constitution and to declare the full-fee paying policy unconstitutional.
It was therefore praying for an order to prohibit the universities from implementing the policy, especially when it came to space allocated to foreign students.
The group contended that these spaces were usually not utilised and as such the universities sell them to Ghanaian students at exorbitant rates, rendering some of the spaces unoccupied.
The public universities, however, argued that admissions were generally based on how much subvention the government made available to them in each year.
It was after the cut-off point of the quota determined by the government subventions that spaces are made available to foreign students, Ghanaian national’s resident abroad and
Ghanaian students, who had qualified but did not receive admission because they could not be covered by the government subvention.
The Public Universities also argued that money earned from the full-fee paying students constituted 28 percent of their overall income, and that this money had gone to support non-fee paying students and provide scholarships to students from deprived secondary schools.
The institutions include are University of Ghana, KNUST, UCC, UDS, University of Mines and Technology, University College of Education.
Joined in the suit were the Ministry of Education, the Attorney General and the National Council for Tertiary Education.
The panel included Ms Justice Sophia Akuffo, Mr Justice Julius Ansah, Mr Justice S.A Brobbey and Ms Justice Sophia Adinyira.
Others are Ms Justice Rose Owusu, Mr Justice Anin Yeboah, Mr Justice Sule Gbadegbe and Mrs Justice Vida Akoto-Bamfo.
Source: GNA