Advertisement

 Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh during his tour at the Presbyterian Boys’ Senior High, Legon. PICTURE: ESTHER ADJEI
Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh during his tour at the Presbyterian Boys’ Senior High, Legon. PICTURE: ESTHER ADJEI

School heads to refund excess feeding fee to final-year students for third term

The Minister of Education, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, has directed heads of second cycle institutions who have collected the full term feeding fee of final-year students for the third term to refund the excess.

He explained that it had been agreed that the third year students would be charged a 29-day pro rata instead of the entire term.

Dr Prempeh gave the directive when he toured some selected senior high schools in Accra  to interact with the final-year students who began this year’s West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) across the country last Thursday.

Schools visited

He visited the Presbyterian Boys Senior High, Legon (PRESEC), Achimota School and Accra Girls Senior High. At PRESEC, 925 candidates were present for the first paper, which was Integrated Science, while Achimota registered 936 candidates for the same paper.

At Accra Girls, three out of the 506 candidates were absent.

The minister was accompanied by officials from the ministry and the Ghana Education Service (GES), including the Director-General of the GES, Mr Jacob Kor, and the Chief Director of the ministry, Mr Enoch Cobbinah.

Final-year students

In all, about 289,207 final-year public and private candidates from 916 senior high schools (SHS) began this year’s West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) across the country.

They are made up of 147,597 males and 141,610 females.

Pro rata

Dr Prempeh expressed concern that even though it was agreed among heads of second cycle schools that they would charge the third-term feeding fee for final year students on a 29-day pro rata, “because of misinformation, some heads are going back to collect the full term’s fees.”

“I must emphasise that the earlier agreement still holds and the 29-day cut-off point is what we expect them to collect from parents and no parents should pay any second bill brought to them,” he told journalists.

Dr Prempeh said school fees should not be a stumbling block to examination and re-echoed the call on heads of second cycle schools not to prevent any student from writing the WASSCE because that student had not paid the school fees.

School fees

The minister announced that henceforth, no headmaster should prevent any student from writing an examination because that student owed school fees.“The child has gone through a three-year academic exercise and no headmaster should prevent students from writing an examination because that child has not paid school fees. Actually it is not the child that pays school fees, it is parents,” he stressed.

He described such an action as “catastrophic” and warned that any headmaster whose name was brought up for flouting the directive would be dealt with.

Interactions

At PRESEC, the minister interacted with the candidates and advised them to stay away from engaging in any examination malpractice, “because that won’t help you.”

The Headmistress of PRESEC, Mrs Lady Queene Asiedu-Akrofi, said her students were well motivated and prepared to write the exam.

For her part, the Headmistress of Accra Girls, Mrs Joyce Acolatse, explained that two of the three candidates who were absent had travelled, while one of them could not be traced.

 

The Director-General of the GES, Mr Kor, was hopeful that the heads of second cycle schools would follow the directives issued by both the GES and the ministry not to sack any candidate because of school fees.

Connect With Us : 0242202447 | 0551484843 | 0266361755 | 059 199 7513 |