Accra, Jan. 18, GNA - The Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS) on Sunday debunked allegation that they charged fees from their pupils for the use of government supplied textbooks. In a statement issued in Accra, the President of the association, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah said the accusation was totally unfounded and rather unfortunate. He was reacting to allegation made by the Director of the Supply and Logistics Division of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mr. Ben Cronze, at the monthly meet-the-press series in Accra on January 14.

Mr Cronze said at the session that all textbooks supplied by government should be given to pupils free of charge and warned that any school found charging fees for their use would be severely dealt with. Dr Nkrumah said government supply of textbooks to private schools are so inadequate that they instead had to encourage parents to buy on the open market for their children .

"The supply from the GES covers only 25 per cent of each stream of class and since some private commercial printers have been authorized to produce these textbooks, we encourage parents to procure them for their children so they can take them home for their studies".

Dr. Nkrumah said investigation is very important in the whole issue and challenged the GES to come out with concrete evidence so that the private schools of selling government supplied textbooks on the open market and demanded proof of the accusation. "Private schools are of high calibre in the educational system in the country and no private school will indulge in any of the accusation being levelled against them" he added.