The Administrator of the Ghana Educational Trust Fund (GETFund), Fosuaba Mensah Banahene, has appealed to students to refrain from vandalising school properties during demonstrations. He said it costs the government and other stakeholders a lot of money to provide facilities for the schools to ensure quality education. Mr. Banahene noted that it was regrettable that students destroyed or vandalised property during demonstrations. ‘Most often some of these projects are under resourced and the more we destroy them, the harder it becomes for us to acquire money from elsewhere to restart or continue with such projects again", he said. He said between 2001 and 2006, a total of ¢4.4 trillion was allocated by the government for the fund to finance projects and programmes in public sector schools nationwide. ‘The purpose of the GETFund as contained in the law, Act 581 is to provide funding for the provision of education nationwide at all levels and that is what the Board of Trustees and the GETFund has been doing since its inception in 2001". He said out of the total amount, ¢1.8 trillion was allocated for the pre-tertiary institutions for the construction of classroom blocks, staff bungalows, dormitories, the provision of computers, and books for libraries among other things. Mr. Banahene said that the fund has also supported some of the pre-tertiary schools with means of transport including all the 21 public girls’ secondary schools which have received a bus each. He said it was the expectation of the GETFund that by 2010 all senior secondary schools would have been provided with facilities that will enhance their academic work. The Administrator said, at the tertiary level, a total of ¢2.2 trillion has been allocated which has impacted significantly on that sub-sector as evidenced by the massive projects that have been undertaken in all the six public universities. "Some have seen the construction or refurbishments of lecture halls, classroom blocks, auditoriums, workshops, the provision of equipment, construction of sports fields, provision of vehicles, library materials and computers," he said adding that the Wa and Bolgatanga polytechnics have been provided with completely new campuses and major constructional works have been undertaken. Mr. Banahene said the fund has also provided money to support the students loan scheme to the tune of ¢302 billion as at December, 2006 which is being administered by the Students Loan Trust. It also supports brilliant students to be trained as lecturers and researchers and provides funding to the scholarship secretariat to continue the Northern scholarship scheme. The private institutions, including the universities, have also benefited in limited ways, he said adding that in 2006, all the accredited private universities received a 60-seater bus each and their libraries supplied with books, computers and other library materials. Source: The Ghanaian Times