Some parents whose children are being admitted into Senior High Schools have expressed surprise at the decision of school heads to demand some payments before their wards are admitted.
Government pledged to absorb the cost of secondary education in Ghana under the free SHS policy.
[contextly_sidebar id=”MPL0nOeXdWJTOrtOsL0xMNYBlrkEoxQ1″]The policy begins this academic year with first year students in some selected secondary schools nationwide.
However Citi News‘ Kojo Agyemang, who visited some of the schools reported that some parents were dissatisfied because they were being charged extra fees.
“Some of the parents told me they had been asked to pay extra fees. They said 60 cedis out of the 100 cedis they were being charged are for text books while 40 cedis is for maintenance. Some schools are charging extra hundred fees from parents ” Kojo stated.
A parent who spoke to Citi News said “they have asked us to buy text books so I don’t know if government failed to absorb fees for the text books.”
Another said “we have been asked to buy other text books so I think that category was covered by government.”
Day students will now pay 367 Ghana cedis while boarders will pay 724 ghana cedis under the new programme.
Government has also absorbed seven items under the admission fees category; two items under the teaching and learning support fees and two items from the PTA categories under the programme.
It however failed to absorb anything from the uniform and clothing category.
The Ghana Education Service earlier listed schools that are expected to benefit from the implementation of the progressive free SHS policy.
They include:
Central Region – 27, 795 students in 54 schools
Western Region – 38, 751 in 56 Schools
Ashanti Region – 64, 430 from 102 schools
Northern – 17, 648 students out of 45 schools
Brong Ahafo – 38, 751 from56 schools.
Upper East – 1,395 students out of 28 schools
Upper West – 877 students from 23 schools
Eastern – 34,157 students out of 82 schools
Greater Accra – 52,664 consisting of 46 schools
Volta – 36,859 out of 88 schools
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By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah