Agogo teacher trainees stranded over unwarranted fees

Presbyterian College of Education (APCE) who reported back to campus last Monday to write their end of semester exams from their out programme (Teaching practice) are stranded.

They are being compelled to pay second semester fees as a condition for admission into halls of residence and access to the dining hall. The first semester ends with the completion of exams in mid-March.

As a result, the students are being subjected to inhuman treatment as one Mrs. Ivy Nyamebi, the Barma Hall (Hall 5) warden, acting on the instructions of the Principal, would not allow the students to be housed nor fed until a total fee of about GHC1,396 for first and second semesters are fully paid.

Some of the stranded students are compelled to put up with friends in the neigbourhood or sleep on verandas and cater for their food needs until full payment is made.

Those who are able to meet the conditions will have to hang around until a batch of 12 students fully pay their fees before rooms are allocated to them, even though students are admitted as individuals.

Yesterday morning, Mrs. Nyamebi engaged the services of a carpenter to fix locks on doors of some dormitories to prevent students from sneaking into them at night.

Some of the students believe the Principal is behaving this way because of the students’ earlier protest against moves by the school authorities to exploit them unduly.



Last year, September, the final year students were subjected to a similar treatment for complaining about their high fees, compared to other Colleges of education.

The students were paying close to GHC1,300 – including examination fee of GHc250, registration, academic and professional training and feeding fees of GHC747, SRC dues of GHC150, hall dues of GHc150 per student, even though they have to pay GHC57 as residential fees for the out programme, at a time their counterparts at St. Louis College of Education are paying GHC847.

Prior to that standoff, the students on June 17, 2016, had demonstrated to halt any further arbitrarily dismissal of teachers by the Principal.

The College Bursar, one Mr. Felix, who was on campus last Monday when the students reported, pretended not to be aware of the development on campus at the time The Chronicle reached him on phone.

He said he was in Kumasi, Thursday morning and promised to verify the complaint when he gets back.

Characteristic of the Principal of the College, Rev. Mrs. Esther Agbodeka, several calls to her for her position on the impasse failed. She has not responded to a text message to her cell phone repeatedly on Wednesday and Thursday.

The Director-General of the Ghana Education Service has also not reacted to Chronicle enquiries via text message since Wednesday, regarding the structure of payment of fees at the Colleges of Education.