Reverse interdiction of St Augustine’s headmaster
The Board of Governors of St Augustine’s College in Cape Coast in the Central Region has appealed to the Ghana Education Service (GES) to reverse the interdiction of the headmaster of the institution, Mr Joseph Connel, for allegedly charging unapproved fees.
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According to the board, the interdiction of the headmaster “was done in a rush and not premised on needed investigation and natural justice.”
A letter addressed to the Director General of GES and signed by the Board Chairman, Rev. Fr John Manso Hamilton, said the board noticed flaws in the interdiction after its deliberations in Cape Coast last Monday.
Background
The headmaster was interdicted last Friday for allegedly charging unapproved fees of GH¢430 for newly admitted students.
According to the Deputy Minister in charge of Pre-tertiary Education, Mr Alex Kyeremeh, his interdiction followed investigations which revealed that the school was charging GH¢435 as parent-teacher association (PTA) levy, which the ministry described as illegal.
Flaws identified
Following the interdiction of the headmaster, the statement said, the board of governors convened an emergency meeting at the school on Monday, October 17, 2016.
At the meeting, the statement said, the headmaster and the accountant were invited to brief the board about the purported charging of unapproved fees.
After the briefing and initial clarifications, the statement said, the board noticed that there were flaws in the interdiction.
It said the flaws were identified in the procedure for the interdiction, date and time of investigation, date of the interdiction letter and breach of natural justice.
It further submitted that another flaw in the interdiction procedure was the fact that the Central Regional Director of Education did not attend the emergency meeting on the subject but rather chose to solely nominate someone to represent the board of governors on an investigative committee that looked into the matter.
