Education Minister warns heads of schools against illegal fees

Minister of Education, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang

The Minister for Education, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang has warned heads of schools against taking illegal fees from parents.

The Minister gave the warning during a tour of some Millennium City Schools projects in Accra with the Mayor of the capital city, Dr. Alfred Oko Vanderpuye.

She argued that the cost of education to parents in Ghana is not supposed to be as high as it looks, but it becomes high because heads of school pile on lots of unapproved and illegal fees.

“Whiles government works to bring down the cost of education it is important that heads of schools do not use other unapproved means to raise the cost of education,” Prof. Opoku Agyemang said.

The Minister noted that such illegal fees tend to deprive most children access to education because their parents are unable to bear them.

She has therefore urged parents not to pay any illegal fees which have not been approved by the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Ministry of Education (MOE).

“I have received so many letters and so many complaints about all these extraneous charges, sometimes they are higher than the fees on the bill - this is not acceptable” the minister asserted.

Professor Opoku-Agyemang urged heads of schools to rather inculcate the value of reciprocity in the parents so that the parents will voluntarily support the school rather than squeezing high fees from their parents.

“How do we expect the parents to support the school after making them bear such sky rocketing and unwarranted fees,” she asked.

She also criticized the demands teachers make on their students during festive occasions like Christmas, Easter and others.

“When we make our children bring us cash and gifts as incentives, what message are we giving the children - that when you also grow up and become a doctor, apart from your salary the patients must also pay you - what kind of society do we think we are building?,” Prof Opoku Agyemang asked.

Prof Opoku Agyemang said in spite of the outrageous charges by the heads of schools the exams results of the children are not good, because the teachers do not even concentrate on teaching well.

Dr. Vanderpuye said AMA is currently constructing 74 Millennium City schools as part of efforts to stop the school shift systems, adding that six (6) of the structures will be ready for commissioning by the end of May.

He said the project enjoys support from the GETFund, USAID and some corporate organizations.