Kumasi, July 09, GNA - New fees for the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) basic schools will be introduced at affordable levels beginning from the 2006/7 academic year, Professor Akwesi Andam, Vice Chancellor of the university has announced He, however, stressed that, non-staff parents should be prepared to pay commercial rates.

The Vice Chancellor said the move had been triggered by the government's recent privatisation of military and university schools adding that, "it is the responsibility of the university to find bearable ways to increase fees to enable our pre and basic schools thrive".

Professor Andam announced this when speaking on the theme: "parental irresponsibility, a menace to society" at the 11th speech and prize-giving and graduation ceremony of the KNUST JSS in Kumasi on Saturday.

He urged parents to take wholehearted and keen interest in the education of their children, which would not only ensure that they obtained good grades to take them to higher levels of study, but would also help salvage them from straying into vices as drug abuse, sexual immorality, lack of respect among others.

"There is actually no better time to mould our children than when they are young and can bend like twigs.

Alternately, he advised children to obey and respect their parents, whilst also studying hard and always cultivate the habit of reading not only their core subjects but story books and novels to enrich their vocabulary among others.

Mrs Theodosia Jackson, headmistress in a report said all the 422 candidates presented for the BECE exams passed, but cautioned the pupils not to rest on their oars but study hard to maintain the record. She said the achievement of the school was by dint of hard work, discipline and the grace of God and not by mere admissions into the school.