Government Releases Final Tranche Of Capitation Grant

The government has released the final tranche of ¢34,446,619,000 as Capitation Grant for pupils in public basic School for the 2005/2006 academic year.

That brings the total amount paid by the government for current academic year to ¢129,446,619,000 after an initial payment of ¢95,000,000,000.

The acting Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES) , Michael Nsowah, who told the Daily Graphic this yesterday, said efforts would be made to transfer the money into the Capitation Grant accounts of the schools at the district level. Under the Capitation Grant, every basic school receives ¢30,000 per pupil.

The grant is designed to empower the schools to effectively use financial resources to plan and carry out quality improvement activities and is therefore expected to serve as an opportunity to help implement fiscal decentralisation, which is a long-term goal of the government.

Mr Nsowah said so far, five out of the 10 regions had submitted the account members of districts for the money to be paid into them, adding that the cheques had been dispatched to those five regions.

He said a total of 4,314,887 pupils were to benefit from the grant and that in terms of absolute figures, there were additional 616,439 pupils, made up of 295,114 boys and 321,325 girls, over the 2004/2005 enrolment figures.

“This represents a general percentage increase of 16.7 per cent, Specifically, pre-school has seen an increase of 36.58 per cent, primary 14.22 per cent and 10.32 per cent for Junior Secondary School (JSS)”, he stated.

Mr Nsowah not that the increase in enrolment showed that when fees were abolished, more children could have access to education.

He said schools that had not submitted accounts on how the grant was used in the districts were expected to do so since at the end of the academic year, they were required to render proper accounts.

The acting GES boss cautioned headteachers who had ignored warnings from the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports and the GES not to collect levies from pupils to stop the practice, since anyone caught after investigations would be dealth with according to the rules and regulations of the GES.

“Education is a fundamental right of every child and we must always behave as professionals, otherwise we lose our respect in society”, Mr Nsowah said.