Rising Cost of Education Worries Parents

The steeply rising cost of education, particularly at the basic level against the generally high cost of living is beginning to draw some angry reactions from parents.

Even on holidays, private school owners are insisting that pupils and students attend holiday classes. But in all cases it is not for free. You either pay or your child fails. Teachers will not go over topics treated during the holidays when schools resume.

Fees for these classes are independent of the fees paid for the regular school sessions. The fees being charged for the holiday classes range between ?10,000 and ?100,000 per pupil.

Some parents reject the classes outright. Other parents, especially those who work for long hours send their wards to these classes not because they endorse the fees. Rather, they hope their children would be kept under some sort of supervision in their absence.

Public schools are barred from organising holiday classes but some in the Accra-Tema metropolis are organisng classes for final year students, often for a token, compared with their counterparts in the private schools.

But by far, it is the fees some private schools will charge for the 2001/2002 academic year that has shaken parents from their slumber. Government adjusted workers salary by just 16 per cent after the minimum wage went up to ?5,500 from ?4,200.

Yet some schools have increased their fees several times above the government approved rates. Some schools are also charging for facilities under construction or yet to be built.

The Ministry of Education has clearly spelt out criteria for determining how much fees schools should charge, depending on facilities they provide.

Some parents have questioned the quality of facilities in certain schools as against fees charged. Some have no laboratories, playing fields nor qualified staff, yet they claim grade "A" status.

So far, beyond calling on owners of schools to charge the Ministry's approved fees, the Education Ministry has done little about these violations.