CHASS has no authority to reopen, close schools — GES
The Ghana Education Service (GES) has said the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) does not have the authority to refuse to reopen schools for the 2016-2017 academic year.
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“The GES Management wants to remind all heads of second-cycle schools that the authority to reopen and close down any public school lies with only the Minister of Education,” it said.
The Director General of the GES, Mr Jacob Kor, stated this at a press conference in Accra last Thursday in response to the threat by CHASS not to reopen schools for the new academic year unless the government settled outstanding debts owed the schools.
Concerns
According to Mr Kor, the untimely release of subsidies and grants was partly due to the lackadaisical attitude of some heads of senior high schools (SHSs) in terms of submission of data on students.
It said, for instance, that some heads of schools submitted their 2015-2016 first-year admission figures and other data for funds to be released to the GES Headquarters on Thursday, July 14, 2016.
He warned that all heads who delayed in the submission of their data would be queried.
According to him, 16 SHSs were yet to submit their data.
Mr Kor further stated that the management of the GES had received a request from CHASS to increase the prevailing feeding fee from GH¢3.30 per student per day to an appreciable level and gave an assurance that the GES would respond appropriately to that concern at the beginning of the new academic year.
Payments
“In the 2015-2016 academic year, only one term of SHS/TVET subsidy and progressively free SHS is outstanding and are currently being processed for payment,” he said, pointing out that the government was committed, under the Social Intervention Programme (SIP), to paying basic school capitation grant, Basic Education Certificate Examination (bece) and SHS/TVET subsidies.
Concerning the capitation grant, he said GH¢16.5 million had been paid for the third term of the 2014/15 academic year and the first term of the 2015/16 academic year, with the arrears being processed for payment.
Mr Kor also indicated that GH¢17.2 million had been paid for the second term of the 2015/16 academic year and that “only the third term is currently outstanding and is being processed for the payment before the end of the term”.
For SHS subsidies, he said, GH¢23.5 million had been paid for the first term of the 2015-2016 academic year.
“As of the time CHASS went to present its press release without consultation with management, GH¢23.4 million meant for the payment of the subsidy for the second term was ready for disbursement to the schools,” he added.
Regarding feeding grant, he said GH¢2 million had been paid, while payment of special school feeding grant for the third term was being processed for payment by the end of the term.
“As of July 14, 2016, the government had released GH¢45,088,380, $2,808,758.04 and 283,608.00 euros for the underlisted outstanding scholarship claims: second year claims for the third term of the 2015-2016 academic year/ air tickets for special language students, bilateral awards/year abroad and bilateral awards tenable in Germany,” he added.
VAT
On the issue of VAT, he said if second-cycle schools wanted to be exempted from such tax, they would have to request for an amendment to the VAT Law.
“In this world, everybody owes or is indebted and as such the government should not be seen as the only one which owes. Government is not the only panacea to all educational problems,” he said.
