Free SHS: Govt kicks against CHASS’ proposal to levy parents

An attempt by the Conference of Heads of Assisted Senior High Schools (CHASS) to make parents pay levies under the Free SHS programme has been blocked by the government.

According to state-owned Daily Graphic, at a meeting on Thursday, October 30, 2020, CHASS put forth a proposal for the review of the Free SHS policy that would allow for the payment of Parent Teacher Association (PTA) levies.

However, the state-owned media outlet disclosed in a report on Friday, October 30, 2020, that after an interview with Deputy Education Minister, Dr Yaw Adutwum, he said reintroducing the PTA levies goes against the reasons for which the Free SHS policy was introduced.

"To say that the government should somehow allow you [CHASS] to levy your own fees against parents in an era of Free Senior High School is what I don't understand. I really don't understand the point in saying that Senior High School is free, the government has absorbed fees, the government is even paying development levies, which is even supposed to be used for school construction and other infrastructure development that the school wants to undertake and yet we are still asking the government to allow us to levy the students, no!" Daily Graphic quoted the Deputy Minister.

The Minister, according to the report, explained that if parents voluntarily decide to support a school, that should be permissible.

“…if you have a group of parents, or parents of any school, who are saying that, can we support our school, yes, of course, they can support their school, they can voluntarily donate to support their school in the same way that old students do but cannot allow the introduction of fees through the back door…” the Deputy was quoted further in the report.