Education Minister justifies Research Fund

The Minister of Education, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, has defended the establishment of the research fund by saying the fund will give  financial assistance to lecturers who have good research proposals.

Research allowance was hitherto a specified amount paid to staff members of tertiary and allied institutions to undertake research work. The government has now decided to pool such resources to fully fund research projects.

The minister said this in a speech read on her behalf by the Chairman of the National Council on Tertiary Education, Prof. Mahama Duwiejua, at the eighth graduation of the Tamale Polytechnic over the weekend. 

The establishment of the research fund attracted protests from lecturers of polytechnics and universities, leading to the reported boycott of its inauguration by the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) and the Polytechnic Teachers Association of Ghana (POTAG) recently.

Prof. Opoku-Agyemang said proper research would aid the country’s development and that the creation of the research fund was a way of dealing with the research challenges in the country.

She also lauded the Tamale Polytechnic for establishing a research unit to co-ordinate its research activities.