Investigate Corrupt Ashanti Headmasters � Tein

The Leadership of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) branch of the Tertiary Education Institutional Network (TEIN) of the NDC is calling on the Education Ministry and the Ghana Education Service to launch full scale investigation into the scandal of rot and corruption that is going in the various second cycle institutions, particularly in the Ashanti region, and apply the appropriate punitive measures on the culprits. In spite of directives from the Director General of Education to heads of secondary schools to charge fees between GH�400 and that, the story is entirely different in the Ashanti region. Addressing a press conference in Kumasi, the president of the TEIN � KNUST branch, Mr. Shadrack Ahiable, observed that, currently secondary school education in the Ashanti region is more expensive than even university education but maintained that, this could not be blamed on the NDC government since the heads of the various second cycle institutions might have planned to make the government unpopular. The student leadership maintained that while schools in other regions charge between GH�500 and 700 despite the directives, schools in Ashanti region charge as high as GH�950-180. Some of the schools noted to be charging such outrageous fees include Kofi Adjei SHS-GH�1750, St. Louis-GH�1500, Opoku Ware Boys GH�1500 and Kumasi Anglican GH�1400, among others. What seemed to throw the students into uttermost surprise was that headmasters and mistresses have allegedly negotiated with only a particular bookshop in the region called Issac Books and Stationery which supplies only literature books to headmasters at the cost of GH�300 with 25% of the cost allegedly going to the headmaster or mistress. Ironically, when contacted on phone as to where to get a copy of the said book, the publisher made it clear that he neither deals with individual buyers nor bookshops but rather with only heads of secondary schools. Mr. Ahiable revealed that per their research as a wing of the NDC, they found out that some schools compelled parents to pay for what they called special bed levy which cost GH�100, transport and furniture GH�155, cement fee GH�100, miscellaneous GH�280 while ICT manual and date registration goes for GH�72. �We have preponderant evidence to show that headmasters deny most parents the opportunity for their wards who opt for a science program deliberately and in the attempt to get their wards the program of their choice they are forced to pay an amount of GH�300 and the story is the same in all schools in region� the president stated. The group, therefore, wants to know why some heads of schools in the region are dealing with only one particular bookshop whose location is not readily available, what kind of special bed could it be that costs a student as much as GH�100 and is made compulsory. They asked if this could be a deliberate effort to thwart the efforts of the government as far as education is concerned and also if miscellaneous has become a newly approved fee by the Ghana Education Service. The students described the act as robbery and wickedness. They, therefore, called on government to intervene before such greedy headmasters worsen the plight of poor parents who toil to get their wards educated.