CHASS wants fees up

The Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools has appealed to government to consider reviewing upwards fees subsidies in public second cycle schools from the beginning of the 2007/2008 academic year in September.

The General Secretary, Joseph Addo-Larbi said that the association had already sent a letter to the Director-General of the GES to convene a meeting of stakeholders to discuss and review the various levels of fees "in order to make the necessary adjustments before the schools re-open."

He said CHASS had proposed upward adjustments to the existing levels which were introduced two years ago.

The request covers review of the current feeding fee of 72,000 cedis per student and the subsidies for building maintenance, sports, sanitation and practicals examination fees.

The subsidies paid by government are building maintenance- 15,000 cedis per student; sports-8,000 cedis and practicals fees for science, technical, vocational and agriculture examinations- 30,000 cedis per student per term.

Mr Addo-Larbi said the GES had set up a Food Review Committee which meets annually to discuss and review the various levels of fees before the beginning of every academic year.

The committee comprises representatives of CHASS, the Conference of Principals of Training Colleges, the Domestic Bursars Association, the Association of Principals of Technical Institutions and other key stake holders.

Mr Addo-Larbi expressed the hope that the meeting would determine whether government should approve new fees or not in view of the prevailing market prices of goods and services especially prices of major food items the schools depend on.

He said "for about two years now these levels have remained the same because CHASS was directed by GES to operate with the approved feeding fee of 7,200 cedis at the beginning of the 2005/2006 academic year after we had submitted proposals for an upward adjustment to meet prevailing trends."

Source: The Ghanaian Times