Rev. Afreh Acheampong (middle) Executive Secretary, COFEA
PARENTS and guardians of students preparing for admission into various government-assisted senior highschools have been advised to resist any form of prospectus fees and surcharges levied on them by heads of the schools.
They are to report authorities of anysenior high school (SHS) who insist on payment of these fees and levies prior to the admission of prospective students.
Champions of Free Education, Africa (CoFEA), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) with a mission of projecting the importance of free education throughout Ghana, said this at a press conference addressed in Accra.
Executive Secretary, CoFEA, Rev. Afreh Acheampong, argued that the matter of prospectus and surcharges levied on students, parents and guardians as fee paying, hamper the ideals of government’s flagship Free SHS policy, making the situation seem like revisiting fee-paying once again in Ghana’s second cycle institutions.
According to the group, these prospectus inserted fees and charges for fresh SHS students practiced among government-assisted SHS and TVET schools led to a considerable drop (about 34%) in the enrolment of fresh students in the 2022/2023 academic year as most parents and guardians could not afford the high cost of these prospectus charges and therefore had their wards denied access and opportunity to free SHS education.
COFEA also commended the Ghana Education Service (GES) for providing all government-assisted SHS and TVET schools in Ghana with a standard prospectus code-named ‘National Prospectus’ – a document in which allitems for fresh SHS students to purchase and produce for inspection to school authorities are categorized.
“We believe that this initiative of the GES is going to curb the matter of unapproved fees surcharged on parents and guardians”, the group held. “Without this harmonious prospectus now in place, most brilliant but needy students across Ghana would have been denied access to enjoy the opportunity of Free Education rolled out by government as a privilege for all eligible school going students.”
The group, further advised school administrators of the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) to endeavour to adhere to the directives of the GES on the prospectus, insisting that, “they must restrain themselves from overstepping their bounds to surcharge students with unapproved fees that would seek to impede their enrolment.”
“Equally, COFEA advises Parents and Guardians to heed to GES directives and prepare to meet the opportunity which the National Prospectus has offered them. Furthermore, we encourage parents and guardians to be bold and stand with the GES in the implementation of this National SHS fresh students’ prospectus. They should not be intimidated by any threat from CHASS officers. Any unapproved fee or item outside the prospectus should be reported to the GES or the National Security for the necessary action to be taken”, the group added.
BY Nii Adjei Mensahfio