Two Head Teachers ordered to refund admission fees

Agona Swedru (C/R), Sept. 27, GNA - Mr Dowuona Hammond, the Agona District Director of Education has ordered two head teachers of the Swedru Salvation Army Primary and Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) to refund to parents various sums of monies they collected as admission fees.

They are Mr Justice Osei, Primary/ J SS (A) and Mr Jacob Arthur, Primary/JSS (B).

This came to light when Mr Hammond and Mr Kwame Badu, Regional Manager of Salvation Army Educational Unit, visited the school upon complaints made by some concern parents that the Heads Teachers had collected money from them before admitting their children. According to the Director the parents had questioned the truth about the impact of the capitation grants recently announced by the Government that parents would no more pay cultural, sports, maintenance and other related fees and yet they were made pay.

The two Heads Teachers collected between 10,000 cedis and 30,000 cedis from the parents.

Mr Hammond warned that the Directorate would deal ruthlessly with such Head Teachers, whose attitudes could scare parents and guardians away from enrolling their children in school

He said the District had received 480.5 million cedis as first instalment of the capitation grant and disbursement had been made to pre-schools, primary and junior secondary schools in the area.

He stated that there was no justification for any Head Teacher to collect money from parent before admitting his or her child, adding that Ghana Education Service (GES) would not sit down unconcerned for few Head Teachers to twist and disrupt the policy of the Government and warned them to desist from such acts which would not help to develop education in the area.

Parents from Swedru Holy Quran Primary and Junior Secondary School, who spoke to the GNA, appealed to the District Director of Education to intervene on their behalf since they also had to pay various sums of money before their children were admitted.

Mr Kofi Osei, a parent at Agona Swedru, appealed through the GNA to the Minister of Education and Sports, Mr Yaw Osaafo-Maafo to intensify the monitoring of Head Teachers, especially those in the urban and rural areas to ensure the smooth implementation of the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) programme.

He said some Ghanaians were refusing to see the efforts the Government was making to tackle the problem facing education in the areas of provision of infrastructure, equipment and better conditions of service for teachers.