Release outstanding subsidy - CHASS
The President of the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS), Mr Samuel Ofori-Adjei, has appealed to the government to release the outstanding subsidy for the third term of the 2013/2014 academic year to ensure the smooth running of school activities.
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In an interview with the Junior Graphic, he said payments for the first and second terms of the last academic year (2013-2014) had been made and with some weeks for the first term of the 2014-2015 academic year to end, he was again appealing to the government to quickly work on the subsidy for the first term to help in the holistic running of the schools.
Although he had had assurances that efforts were being made to get the subsidy paid, Mr Ofori-Adjei said it was important for the schools to receive the money early, since school activities were time bound.
Asked why there was such a delay in the provision of the subsidy to schools, the CHASS President said the argument had been that the signed list of students for the subsidy often did not get to the Ghana Education Service (GES) early.
Mr Ofori-Adjei, who is also the Headmaster of Accra Academy, explained that the subsidy took care of maintenance of office equipment, postage, first aid, utilities, as well as support for sports and games.
For secondary/technical schools, the subsidy also took care of maintenance of machinery and equipment.
He clarified that the subsidy was different from the feeding grant adding that the feeding grant was only for schools in the three northern regions of Ghana and some selected schools in the northern part of the Volta and Brong Ahafo regions.
This means that students in all schools in the other regions pay fully for their feeding.
Mr Ofori-Adjei said a delay in the payment of the subsidy affected certain activities in the schools, especially those that were not able to generate their own income and depended solely on the subsidy.