People who are not contributors to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), can now guarantee for students seeking loans from the Students' Loan Trust Fund (SLTF) to pursue tertiary education in the country. The move follows the introduction of a guarantor diversification initiative by the SLTF for the benefit of students. Taking his turn at the Meet-the-Press series in Accra Wednesday, the Minister of Education, Mr Alex Tettey-Enyo said "The facility will enable non-SSNIT contributors to act as guarantors for students' loan applicants. Through this diversification, district assemblies, corporate bodies and individuals, as well as SSNIT contributors, will be able to provide guarantees for students". He said it was the intention of the government that every qualified student who needed financial support accessed funding, adding that the ministry would continue to support the Students Loan Scheme with resources and assistance. On basic education, he said the country had moved close to meeting its targets on enrolment but noted that a lot needed to be done to achieve universal primary education. Mr Tettey-Enyo said statistics on the various stages of the basic level of education indicated that at the pre-school level, the number of public schools increased from 11,140 in 2007/2008 academic year to 11,827 at the beginning of the 2008/2009.academic year. According to him, the total number of children enrolled at the pre-school level increased from 1,258,483 in the 2007/2008 academic year to 1,338,454 in the 2008/2009 academic year, stating that there was also "a two per cent increase in the number of public schools during the period under review". The number of schools rose from 13,247 to 13,510 in the respective years. Public primary school saw enrolment rising from 2,990,773 in the previous academic year to the current 3,041,895. That had brought the current number of primary school pupils to 3,710,647, representing a 2.6 per cent increase over the previous enrolment number of 3,616,023. Mr Tettey-Enyo said overall enrolment at the junior high school (JHS) increased by five per cent from 1,224,010 in 2007/2008 to 1,285,577, pointing out that there had been some improvement in the completion rate indicator at both the primary and JHS stages. On senior high school (SHS) education, he said enrolment increased from the 437,771 in 2007/2008 to 490,334 in 2008/2009. Mr Tettey-Enyo said although there was an increase in the number of public technical schools from 24 to 26, enrolment into such institutions dropped from 20,303 to 18,432. With regard to the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS), he said, "our observation is that the system still has challenges", adding that the next stakeholder meeting to discuss the matter would be held this month. "The ministry has taken note of the implications for enrolment into technical vocational institutions arising from the introduction of the CSSPS. This situation is being addressed by the revised CSSPS system," he said. Mr Tettey-Enyo said new modalities for teacher deployment were being developed, and that the new deployment procedures would promote equity in the allocation of teachers to reduce overlaps that had plagued the educational system. He said Religious and Moral Education at the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE would become an examinable subject from 2011. Source: Daily Graphic