Government has voted GH24,177 million as Capital Grant under the fee-free policy for pupils in public basic schools nationwide for the 2009/2010 academic year which began on Tuesday.
For last academic year, a total of GH�23,527 million, including arrears of GH�2,879,151 for the 2007/2008 school year was spent as Capitation Grant, Mr Jonathan Afranie, Director of Administration and Finance at the Ministry of Education, told the Times in Accra yesterday.
Under the programme, each pupil is allocated GH�4.50 instead of GH�3.00 in the previous year for the payment of culture, sports and internal development fees.
As has been the practice, the money, is not disbursed directly at the ministry, but released through the district education directorates to the schools and these are deducted at the district level�, he explained.
The Capital Grant was introduced in the 2004/2005 academic year and initially piloted in 40 districts with a World Bank funding.
A year later, (2005/2006), it was extended to cover all basic schools in the country, with the government providing the funds.
Mr Afranie stressed the need for heads of schools to ensure utilization of the money, saying �the heads should be able to properly report on how the money was utilized and whether they encountered problems.�
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