Professor Ernest Aryeetey, the former vice-chancellor of the University of Ghana, has urged the government to allow Ghanaians to decide whether they prefer public or private universities.
Aryeetey conceded that the government has the prerogative to decide what to do with public universities. He urged the state, however, to go through the right process to arrive at a decision that will be favourable to all.
Addressing the press on the government’s efforts to revive the economy on Thursday 24 March 2022, the Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, announced that the government intends to wean public tertiary institutions off the state payroll.
The Finance Minister said the move is part of the government’s medium-term measures to revive the crisis-hit economy.
Privatise public universities
However, speaking to Beatrice Adu on Asaase Radio’s The Big Bulletin on Tuesday (12 April), Professor Aryeetey said that the government’s move is not the solution to Ghana’s economic challenges.
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“This is not the kind of thing that you decide in one day in order to solve a particular problem with your finances. Weaning universities off the public purse effectively means you are privatising your universities.
“These are public universities and they are public for a purpose.
“It’s for the people of Ghana to decide whether they want public or private universities. If they want private universities, that’s a decision that we make as a people, not simply a response to challenges with our budget,” he said.
He added: “This is not a matter of [if] the government has no right or not: it’s a matter of if you want to wean them off, you should know the implications; you should know what it means and use the proper channels for having that discussion.
“My point now is that, simply because there’s a budgetary challenge, weaning the university off [government payroll] cannot be the solution.”
