We would like to commend the Deputy Minister for Education and the Ashanti regional director of Ghana Education Service on their recent crackdown on SHS headmasters overcharging on school fees. We are also indebted to the two Kumasi radio stations that recently drew this issue to the attention of the public. As a child-centered organization, Light for Children Ghana is very concerned to see headmasters jeopardizing the future of the country’s youth by effectively denying access to education for many students. The Deputy Minister of Education recently met with headmasters in Kumasi during his two-day working visit on this issue, but we want him to be aware that the problem is also widespread throughout the Ashanti region, and the country as a whole. Many parents and students outside Kumasi have spoken with us and report that high school students in the smaller towns are also being overcharged.
We thank the GES for suspending one of the Ashanti region headmasters and reprimanding ten others. We are pleased that headmasters have agreed to stop charging extra fees and to credit students who have already been overcharged, and that the headmasters involved will be sanctioned. The letters of apology that the offending headmasters are required to write should be addressed first and foremost to students and parents, rather than to the Minister of Education.
Our checks from some of the high schools especially those in central region indicate that some Headmasters have put measures in place to credit the students who were over charged. Aggrey Memorial High School in the Central region should be commended as they have already credited the accounts of each of their students who were overcharged with over two hundred (200) cedis each, and have posted a letter of apology on the school notice board to the students and their families. We have a strong conviction that this situation will not be fully rectified until everyone from top to bottom in the education system remembers that the purpose of education is to serve the best interests of the students.
To help ensure that headmasters do not overcharge in the future, the GES should encourage parents to report schools that attempt to overcharge students. If there is a procedure in place to deal with complaints, there is some hope that this situation will not arise again, as it has in the past. We urge the government and the Ghana Education Service to monitor the situation well into the future to ensure that these changes are genuine and long-term.
Mike Owusu Gyimah,
Program Coordinator, Light for Children Ghana
Kumasi.
Email.Mike@lightforchildren.com