Government urged to check bribery in SSS admissions

Mankessim (C/R), Sept. 29, GNA - Mr Felix Nyarko-Antwi, Mankessim Zonal Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has appealed to the government to take immediate step to address problems confronting parents over admission of their wards into senior secondary schools. Mr Nyarko-Antwi who made the appeal in an interview with Ghana News Agency at Mankessim alleged that some heads of senior secondary schools had refused to consider for admission candidates who selected their schools as second choice.

He said his child who had aggregate 10 in the BECE had not as yet got admission.

"I have become so desperate and restless due to the pressure being put on me by the child and the mother", he said.

The NPP Zonal Chairman said parents who could not contain the pressure had to succumb to the exorbitant bribes, ranging from two million to six million cedis being demanded by the heads and their agents.

He said a widow whose child got aggregate 14 was asked to pay two million cedis as a bribe before the child could secure admission and said because the woman could not get that amount the child was not admitted.

Mr Nyarko-Antwi mentioned a parent who paid six million cedis before his child who had aggregate 27 was admitted into one of the senior secondary schools.

He urged the government to institute probe into this year's admissions and institute severe punishment for those who might be found to have collected bribes.