Inability to pay fees affecting Dormaa SHS

Ms Margaret Pomaa Octchere, Headmistress of Dormaa Senior High School, says the continual delay of students in fulfilling their financial obligations has affected the educational facility from meeting its expectations.

She said government’s annual intervention to protect some final year students indebted to the school from settling in full their school fees before being allowed to write their West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) is hampering the effective running of the school.

Ms Octchere, who made this known in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Dormaa – Ahenkro on Tuesday, said although the school has considered the option of disallowing indebted students from writing the examination, government has opposed the idea and this could affect the future of other students.

She said out of a total of 615 candidates the school presented for this year’s WASSCE, 195 of them are in arrears in excess of GH? 19, 000, 00.

Ms Octchere said attempts to contact parents and guardians of the students to settle the outstanding arrears have also proved unsuccessful.

“I have been calling them on phone, some of them in the Western Region and we don’t get them. More so it requires financial resources to perform these activities,” the headmistress said.

She said the delay on work on the school’s dining hall and assembly hall projects, which have been abandoned for the past six years are due to government’s failure to provide the contractor with the needed funds to complete the project.

“These projects are very dear to my heart and I have written letters to the Minister of Education to bring the pending projects to their notice. I have still not received any response from them,” she said.