Private schools urged to collect reasonable fees

Tamale, March 1, GNA- Alhaji Iddrisu Adam, Tamale Metropolitan Chief Executive has appealed to private schools to give quality education and charge reasonable fees for more people to benefit from their services. He said it should be possible for every parent living in the community where the school is sited to send his or her ward to the school for a reasonable fee, adding that this would help promote good relationship between the school and the communities.

Alhaji Adam was speaking at the first Speech and Prize-giving Day of the Tamale International School (TIS) in Tamale on Saturday. He noted: "If quality education is restricted to only a privileged few, it will be meaningless and will have little impact on the manpower needs for the country's development".

He appealed to traditional rulers and other landowners to make land available for development projects in their communities. He called on parents and teachers to inculcate into the children high moral values, saying: "An excellent student without the necessary moral values will be of little use to society and the nation as a whole". Mr Musah Mohammed Ashiru, the Headmaster in his annual report, said the school since its establishment had been noted for high academic excellence.

He said, last year, out of 30 candidates the school presented for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), 24 pupils scored aggregate six, three had aggregate seven, one candidate had aggregate eight while two obtained aggregate nine.

He said because of the school's high academic performance parents, especially those on transfer were constantly seeking admission for their wards but lack of classroom accommodation had not made this possible. Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris, Minister of Works and Housing, and MP for Gukpegu/Sabongida, who was the guest of honour, donated 100 bags of cement and a cheque for 5.5 million cedis out of his share of the MPs Common Fund to the school for the construction of the six-classroom block.

Alhaji Idris appealed to the board members of the school and the chiefs of the area to give the Headmaster and his staff the necessary encouragement to enable them to carry out their duties efficiently.

The Tamale Metropolitan Chief Executive also gave two million cedis to support the construction of the classroom block.

Deserving students received prizes and certificates, with the overall best award going to Miss Alhassan Ramatu, a JSS Student, who received one million cedis and a set of books.