Parliament Passes Bill to Provide Sustainable Funding to Free Education
- Parliament has approved the Ghana Education Trust Fund (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which will uncap GETFund to provide funding for free education
- The bill also ensures free education for persons with special needs and disabilities, including free tertiary education for those with disabilities
- Ghana's Education Minister, Haruna Iddrisu, stated that the amendment aligned with President John Dramani Mahama's 2025 election campaign promise
Parliament has approved the Ghana Education Trust Fund (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which was recently laid before the house by the Minister for Education, Haruna Iddrisu.
The passage of this bill will effectively uncap GETFund to provide sustainable financing for free secondary education in Ghana.
Source: Facebook
Under the amended bill, there will also be free education for persons with special needs, free tertiary education for persons with disabilities, and the GETFund levy will become input tax-deductible.
This is expected to lessen the financial burden on parents in line with the government's commitment to inclusivity, equal opportunity, and social equity within the education sector.
The Ghana Education Trust Fund (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which was passed on Thursday, December 11, 2025, will offer the much-needed financial boost to the free education policy in Ghana.
In a Citinewsroom report, the Minister for Education said the amended bill would ensure sustainable funding for the Free SHS policy.
"It will give assurance to the continuation of the free senior high school policy initiated by former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in 2018, but it probably did not provide for a dedicated funding source for free senior high school," he said.
Education Minister explains why GETFund was uncapped
Iddrisu explained that the Minister for Finance, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, decided to uncap the GETFund and dedicate financing to make additional resources available for education.
He added that the passage of the amended bill would assure persons with disabilities of free tertiary education.
This means that any person with a disability who gained admission to pursue higher education would receive support from the Government of Ghana.
The Education Minister also gave assurance that such individuals would be supported throughout their higher education journey by the state.
This, he said, was in line with President John Dramani Mahama's campaign promise during the 2024 elections, which he ultimately claimed victory in.
President Mahama, while campaigning for the presidency in 2024, pledged to provide free education to persons with disability from the primary level to tertiary.
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Adutwum crticises expansion of free SHS
Meanwhile, YEN.com.gh reported that former Education Minister, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, had criticised the President Mahama-led government for extending the Free SHS policy to private schools.
He argued that the double-track system had been phased out successfully under the previous NPP administration, led by Akufu-Addo, and that bringing in private schools made no sense to him.
The former Education Minister made these remarks while speaking on the decision of the current government to extend the Free SHS policy to private schools, during an interview with Joy News.
Proofreading by Bruce Douglas, copy editor at YEN.com.gh.
Source: YEN.com.gh
