Let the axe fall on these heads
Parents and guardians are increasingly under pressure to educate their children and wards. This is due to declining government support for education.
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Although education continues to receive the highest allocation of funds from the national budget, that support is still inadequate to meet the growing needs for providing quality education for children.
Today’s technological advancement was spearheaded by very well-educated people across the globe.
Thanks to the increasing investment in education by the government, religious bodies, business people and parents, the educational landscape in the country has changed.
The government, parents, religious bodies and the investor community are making sacrifices to improve the quality of education in the country.
That is why, in spite of the challenges, the least we expect from teachers who are in charge of the country’s pedagogy is their commitment to the goals of education.
Sometimes the actions of teachers tend to undermine the efforts of the rest of society to turn out the right human capital and in the right numbers to take charge of the country’s development process.
The Daily Graphic is appalled by the behaviour of the heads of seven senior high schools in the Ashanti Region who have been summoned by the Ghana Education Service (GES) for allegedly charging above the approved admission and schools fees for first-year students.
We know the school heads are going through difficult times in managing their schools, in the wake of dwindling budgetary support to public institutions, including schools, by the government.
However, the fact that ends are competing for limited means does not give the heads the licence to charge unapproved fees.
Public officials are expected to submit to laid-down regulations and guidelines in order to complement the efforts of the government to deliver public goods to society.
The Daily Graphic encourages the government to step up its support to all public institutions within the constraints of the economy to stop the practice of heads of some institutions using all kinds of methods, including buying at credit from all kinds of suppliers, to run their schools.
No matter the circumstances under which the heads of senior high schools are admitting students this year, they have no right to defy the direction of the GES and, by extension, deny young people the opportunity to pursue higher education just on account that their parents and guardians cannot afford to pay fees.
Daily Graphic/Ghana