GES Probes SHS Fees Payment

Lee Ocran, acting Minister of Education

The authorities of the Ghana Education Service (GES) have indicated it will investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident in which students of the Sokode Senior High School (SHS) in the Volta Region were sacked for non-payment of school fees.
Students of the Sokode SHS on Thursday appealed to the GES to come to their aid as school authorities had sent them off the school premises for non-payment of their fees and are subsequently stranded in the Sokodetownship.

Speaking on Citi FM’sEyewitness News on Thursday, the Deputy Director-General of the GES, Stephen Adu explained saying, “we will first of all call the Regional Director to find out exactly what is happening in this school and then when we get the feedback, from these other places, then we will sit down and see what will be the best option to take.”

According to him, it is very difficult to ascertain the truth surrounding “the whole episode of them being asked to go home to collect their fees.”

Mr. Adu explained that the students are however required to pay the fees to enable the fees to run adding that “tuition fee is free in our public institutions; no sudden pays for tuition fee but the fees that they pay for feeding, they will have to pay for it and so if you have not paid for feeding fee, then it will be very difficult for them to feed you.”

He further mentioned that parents of second cycle students should endeavour to settle the payments of the fees of their wards to protect them from the dangers the students may encounter for being sacked from school.

Mr. Adu advised that parents could also negotiate payment terms with school authorities because the GES “is not very happy when students are sacked to go home to collect fees, we are not very happy when students are sacked during examination to go home. At the same time, we are also not happy when parents refuse to pay their legitimate fees to enable these students to stay in school.”