GETFund Amendment Establishes Dedicated Funding for Free Special Needs Education

Ferdinand  | Education Ghana | March 3 | GETFund Amendment Establishes Dedicated Funding for Free Special Needs Education

SONA 2026: President John Dramani Mahama announces amended GETFund Act to provide sustainable funding for Free Education for learners with special needs across Ghana.

By Education Correspondent

President John Dramani Mahama has announced that the amended Act now establishes a dedicated and sustainable funding framework for Free Education for learners with special needs.

The pronouncement, delivered before Parliament during the 2026 State of the Nation Address, marks what government describes as a decisive turn toward equity within Ghana’s educational order.

A Legal Foundation for Inclusion

Long has the question of sustainable financing troubled special needs education in Ghana. Though policy commitments were proclaimed in years past, funding streams often proved uncertain. By amendment of the GETFund Act, the administration now anchors Free Education for learners with special needs within a defined statutory framework.

Commencing in the 2026 academic year, the measure ensures that learners with disabilities enrolled in recognised institutions shall not be hindered by financial encumbrance. It is a move intended not merely as relief, but as reform.

Education, the President observed, is not a favour extended at pleasure. It is a right grounded in justice and national purpose.

Beyond Rhetoric, Toward Implementation

The announcement forms part of a broader suite of inclusion measures. Earlier in the address, the President confirmed that the daily feeding grant for students in public special schools has been increased from GHS 8.00 to GHS 15.00 for the 2025 to 2026 academic year. For many institutions, this increment is no small matter. It speaks directly to nutrition, health, and dignity.

Moreover, a modern Special Needs School is to be constructed in Ho in the Volta Region, whilst the existing facility in Akropong, Akuapem, shall undergo rehabilitation and upgrade. The intention is plain. Infrastructure must match policy ambition.

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It has often been said in sober circles that special needs education is costly. Yet the counterpoint stands stronger. Exclusion costs more. Where learners are denied access, society forfeits talent, productivity, and cohesion.

By establishing a ring-fenced funding mechanism under GETFund, government seeks to ensure that support for learners with disabilities is neither episodic nor discretionary. In plain terms, the days of scrambling for arrears ought to be behind us.

Stakeholders within the disability advocacy community have received the development with cautious approval. Many note that legislation is one matter; implementation is another. As one education analyst remarked, “The framework is sound. Delivery must now be airtight.”

A Shift in the National Conversation

In recent years, discourse on inclusive education has moved from the margins toward the centre of policy debate. What once seemed aspirational now enters the realm of structured obligation.

President Mahama’s address placed special needs education squarely within the national transformation agenda. Not as charity. Not as tokenism. But as strategy.

In the final reckoning, the measure shall be judged not by its prose, but by its performance. Should funding remain consistent and oversight vigilant, Ghana may well look back upon this amendment as a turning point.

For now, the message from Parliament House was unmistakable. Inclusion is no longer an afterthought. It is policy, backed by law and ledger alike.