Mfantsipim, Wesley Girls charge unapproved admission fees

The Deputy Minister of Education, Mr. Alex Kyeremeh, has cautioned heads of public senior high schools (SHS) who are charging unapproved admission fees for first year students to stop and comply with the government approved fees with immediate effect.

He also instructed the heads to ensure that all the students who had been posted to their schools through the Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) are not denied admission.

Mr. Kyeremeh said this when he and some officials from the Ministry visited some schools in the Central Region on Tuesday.

The team, which included some top officials of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Ministry of Education, visited Mfantsiman Girls, Aggrey Memorial, Mfantsipim and Wesley Girls High schools.

The visit was to ascertain complaints from the public with regards to admission fees and CSSPS admissions in the region.

The Deputy Minister reiterated that the government was committed to ensure accessible education for all by the terms of the Millennium Development goal (MDGs) and therefore called on the heads of educational institutions to help achieve this aim.

He said similar visits would be paid to schools in the other regions and that a monitoring team would be sent to all schools to ensure that approved fees were charged.

Mr Kyeremeh told the heads to ensure that rules and regulations regarding the approved fees and CSSPS were adhered to.

He said government approved bills required boarding students to pay between GHc437.00 and GHc500.00 and day students are to pay GHc230.00.

At the Mfantsipim School it was detected that first year students were made to pay an admission fee of GHc650.00 in addition to a special Parent/ Teacher Association (PTA) Levy of GHc220.

Mr. John Aitkpillah, Assistant Headmaster of Mfantsipim in charge of Academic Affairs, explained that the School had not received the approved bill and was therefore charging the students based on the previous  year’s bill.

Mrs. Phyllis Arthur Simpson, the Assistant head in Charge of Domestic Affairs, added that the special PTA levy was for development projects being undertaken by the School and that  the School had received approval from  the GES and PTA to collect such fees.

At the Wesley Girls High School, Mrs Betty Djokoto, the Headmistress, said the School was charging GHc700.00 as admission fees because the School had not got the approved fees.

She said the fees charged were for all other items including customized books, stationery and others that would be needed by students to facilitate teaching and learning.

Mrs Djokoto attributed the School’s inability to admit all the students posted to the School to lack of classrooms, adding that work on a 12- unit classroom block  was very slow, making it impossible to admit more students.

The Assistant Headmaster in charge of Academic affairs of the  Aggrey Memorial secondary School , Reverend Aboagye Buadu told the team that the  700.00  Ghana cedis being collected was a deposit since the school had not yet received the  new approved bill and gave the assurance  that the school planned to debit students when the approved bill is received.

Reverend Simon Asige of the GES disagreed with the heads’ explanation that they did not know the new approved bill, adding that a committee set to review the fees included the President of the Council of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) which came up with the approved fee.

He said a footnote attached to the approved bill  were  distributed to school heads  which  directed  that other relevant books and stationary might  be put in the stores for students who wished to purchase them to do so at their own convenience and not to be part of the fees.

He said the footnote further stated that other PTA levies for the development projects must have an explicit approval from the Director General of the GES before students are billed but expressed regret that the situation was not the same in the various schools.

Source: GNA