Heads of senior high schools (SHSs) found culpable in the charging of illegal fees will lose their jobs, the acting Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mr Jacob M. A. Kor, has hinted.
He said such heads of SHSs would be sanctioned depending on the gravity of the offence, though he did not categorically spell out the sanctions.
Mr Kor expressed concern that some school heads had shifted from the government’s policy of making secondary education progressively free, and were selling education to the highest bidder and expressed regret that “this does not augur well for our good reputation”.
He said the impression created was that heads of schools flagrantly flouted directives of the acting Director-General because they had become “an island onto themselves”.
Purpose of the briefing Mr Kor gave the warning when he addressed headmasters of SHSs in the Eastern and Greater Accra regions at a special briefing on new guidelines on payment of school fees at the Achimota School in Accra yesterday.
The briefing was organised as a result of widespread complaints from concerned parents throughout the country that some heads of SHSs were collecting unapproved fees and also consolidating such unapproved fees for payment by final-year students.
The affected headmasters were either collecting unapproved fees and/or were compelling parents to pay both the second and third term school fees in the second term before the students were allowed to attend classes.
The forum, which will be replicated at specific locations throughout the country, also affords the acting Director-General the opportunity to meet heads of SHSs, interact with them and roll out his vision.
Sanction “I cannot guarantee the continued stay in office for those of you found culpable for one offence or the other, else I would also be seen to be supporting you to flout the ministry’s directives on school fees,” he told the heads at the meeting.
Mr Kor expressed concern that the action of some school heads was dragging the name of the GES in the mud, stressing, “You should not only manage and maintain our reputation, but should also work towards creating goodwill at all times.”
He said when the heads concerned were invited to respond to the allegations, it became obvious that most of them complied with a decision taken at the recent Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) meeting to send two separate bills in respect of the second and third terms with a newsletter requesting parents to pay both.
“This was done without recourse to management of the GES who are your employers,” he noted, adding that for instance, 97 per cent of schools invited to appear before a committee at the ministry were charging unapproved fees and levies.
PTA Levies Taking the heads through a presentation on parent-teacher association (PTA) levies, the acting Deputy Director-General of the GES, Madam Elizabeth de-Souza, told them that it was illegal and unacceptable for a head to bill students with any special levy which was not approved by the Director-General.
She said the approved PTA dues for the 2014/2015 academic year was GH¢35 which was reviewed annually and wondered how heads of SHSs were utilising levies such as computer laboratory fees and development levy.
Advice Advising the heads, the immediate past President of CHASS, Mr Samuel Ofori Adjei, asked heads not to over-spend “but to operate within your capacity”.
He called on the government to release funds at the beginning of every term to enable the heads to effectively and efficiently run the schools, noting that so far only the first term subsidy had been released even though schools were almost in the third term.
The Director of Education in charge of Secondary, Mr Michael Kofi Inkoom, was hopeful that the briefing sessions would give the heads the opportunity to share their concerns and the reason for their actions with the GES.
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