Parliament by majority votes has rejected a motion requesting the President to absorb School fees for University Students for 2020/2021 academic year.
The amended motion moved on Thursday, 28th January, 2021 by a Member of Parliament for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga and seconded by the Member of Parliament for Akatsi North, Peter Kwasi Nortsu-Kotoe wanted the government to support first year University Students in both public and private through COVID-19 Fund.
The marathon debate, which lasted for over five hours, was rejected by voice votes from the NPP Majority Group in The House.
In all ten MPs, five from each side of The House argued for and against what was termed “consensus motion”, as the mover of the motion was asked to amend his original motion to reflect the current situation on the ground.
The Minority side, led by Haruna Iddrisu supported the motion and argued that it was important for the Government to use part of the national covid-19 alleviation fund to cushion the parents.
According to them, coronavirus brought severe hardship to many parents and it is just appropriate that the Government comes in to support since it has started supporting some individuals and some selected businesses as a way of support.
But, the NPP side led by Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonso vehemently rejected the proposition and questioned both the form and substance of the motion.
They said, the motion was “defective, lacked merit and unconstitutional and must not be supported by this House”.
They also raised issues related to availability of funds to support “these numbers, as alluded to by MP for Efutu Alexander Afenyo Markin.
Story filed by Edzorna Francis Mensah
