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Audit accounts of SHSs - Parent

Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, Minister for EducationAn aggrieved parent, Nana Owusu Boamah, has called on the government to conduct an audit of the accounts of government assisted senior high schools (SHSs) in the country.

According to him, assertions by heads of assisted SHSs that final-year students still owed their respective schools millions of cedis were false representations meant to take away the public’s attention from several irregularities those heads officials were engaged in.

“I find the approach adopted by the heads of government SHSs on the non-payment of fees by students very strange. I have four children who passed out from SHS recently and I was made to pay the full fees before they were made to write their final exams,” he said.

An obviously angry Nana Boamah, who stormed the offices of the Daily Graphic to express his displeasure with publications in the July 16 and 24, 2013 editions of the Daily Graphic which chronicled measures the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the heads of SHSs were taking to retrieve the fees owed the schools by graduating students, expressed worry at the trend of events.

“Not only were parents made to pay astronomical fees charged by the schools but we were also compelled to pay both registration and tuition fees before students were allowed to take part in the recent West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE),” he stated.

He wondered why students would be made to pay fees such as teachers’ motivational allowance and sports when such fees were not sanctioned by the government.

Nana Boamah, who in May, this year, petitioned the Minister of Education over the issue, leading to a directive by the minister to school heads to allow students to write the WASSCE, stated that “not all students were allowed to write the exams in many parts of the country”.

He asked why school heads continued to charge unapproved fees and still made misleading comments in the media.

“The government must, as a matter of urgency, conduct a thorough audit of assisted SHSs and make disclosures to the public on how excess fees paid by parents were applied,” he added.

By Della Russel Ocloo/Daily Graphic/Ghana

Writer’s email: [email protected]

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