Tema, July 26, GNA- The Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS) branch in Ashiaman has accused the Tema Municipal Educational Directorate of asking for operational license fees from them before being given text books.

"Refusal to pay the operational license fee to the Educational Directorate means exemption from the provision of text books even though the books are supposed to be free to all Ghanaian children of school going age' he said.

The Zonal Chairman of the GNAPS, Mr Ebenezer Amanor, made the accusation at the 9th Annual Zonal Conference of the Association held at Ashaiman under the theme, '50 years of education in Ghana, the role of the private schools'.

He said the GNAPS cannot afford to pay two operational license fees to the Tema Municipal Assembly (TMA) and GES in addition to other taxes paid to other institutions including the TMA.

Mr Amanor explained that, the GNAPS apart from paying tax to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), property rate among others to the TMA, which also demands payment of an additional operational license fees for the usage of a land in the municipality.

The Zonal Chairman stated that, the only benefits private schools could receive from the Ghana Educational Trust Fund (GETFUND) for contributing their quota to the educational sector was the provision of the textbooks, which they were being denied. Touching on the theme, the Zonal chairman mentioned that, Ashaiman has only one Senior Secondary School and one cluster of basic schools provided by the government despite its densely population noting that, without the private schools, children in the Ashaiman township would have been left to their fate.

The capitation grant implemented by the government has created problem for the GNAPS as the children left without paying their fees to the already choked public schools.

The Member of Parliament for Ashaiman, Mr Alfred Agbesi in a speech read on his behalf urged members of the association to unite while encouraging operators of less endowed schools to seek advice from the well endowed ones for an effective administration of their institutions. He also called on all stake holders to help in diverse ways to accelerate the development of private schools, as according to him it has been recorded that, 22 out of 50 schools in the municipality, which performed well in the last Basic Education Certificate Examination were private schools. 26 July 07