The National Executive Council of the Ghana National Council of Private Schools (GNACOPS) has called on all private schools in the country to hold on with the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) registration process until the promise made by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo that the government will absorb half of the registration fees, is fulfilled.

The Council said President Akufo-Addo made a commitment at a meeting on Wednesday, 28 November 2018 to stakeholders of private schools that the government will absorb 50 per cent of the BECE registration fees.

However, in a letter dated Wednesday, 13 November 2019, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), directed all private schools in the country to pay GHS 80.00 as registration fee for each BECE candidate for the 2020 examinations.

In a statement issued and signed by its Director for Administration, Esther Quist Wood, on Friday, 15 November 2019, GNACOPS said its attention had been drawn to the letter from WAEC to private schools and indicated that the directive by the examination body “contradicts the promise made to the Council by the government.”

GNACOPS, therefore, called on all private schools in the country to “hold on with the BECE registration payment processes”.

The statement added that the Council is entreating “all stakeholders in the private schools' fraternity (parents, owners of schools, managers and administrators of schools, teachers and students) to exercise restraint and be resolute” as it is determined “to protect and defend the private education sector to overcome all challenges.”