As Parliament prepares to pass the National Scholarship Authority Bill by the end of the week, education policy experts and civil society groups are voicing concerns about its potential to deliver genuine reform to Ghana's scholarship system.

Peter Nortsu-Kotoe, Chairman of Parliament’s Education Committee, announced on July 15 that the bill seeks to improve transparency and oversight in the administration of scholarships across the country.

However, Kofi Asare, Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, believes the bill could merely reinforce existing problems rather than address them.

Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Thursday, July 17, Asare criticised the bill’s governance structure, calling it a mere shift of power within the executive branch.

“The new bill is simply transferring power from one group of executives to another group of executives. The board will comprise the Ministers of Education, Foreign Affairs, the Attorney General, and others. So is it just a transfer of power over who benefits from scholarships from one group of executives to another?”

Mr. Asare also pointed to the bill’s failure to address critical issues such as nepotism, political interference, and the lack of merit-based selection processes.

“If you do that, you will be doing the same thing and expecting different results, and you will not get different results,” he said.

He further stated that there is a need for a clear separation of powers in the scholarship process.

“Best practice dictates that faculty reward scholarships or recommend people for scholarships. The authority normally regulates the awarding of the scholarship; they set the standard and ensure that the faculty conforms to the standards.”

The Executive Director warned that allowing the executive to approve scholarships would only repeat past failures.

“If the same executive arm of government is approving scholarships, you are not solving the problem, you are just repeating the same thing that was done by the previous government,” he said.