The Ministry of Education has approved new fees to be charged by heads of second cycle schools for the 2014/2015 academic year.
In the approved fees structure, fresh boarders are required to pay GH¢ 668.5 while day students are to pay GHC 355.5. Continuing boarding students are under an obligation to pay GHC 385 and continuing day students, GHC 73.
The Minister of Education, Prof Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, announced this in Parliament today when she appeared on the floor to answer questions pertaining to the charging of unapproved fees by some second cycle institutions.
For fresh boarders, she gave the breakdown as follows: miscellaneous fees, GHC 359; uniform and clothing, GHC 175; approved teaching and learning support fees, GHC 97.5 and PTA levies GHC 37.
Fresh day students, according to the Minister, are expected to pay GHC 48 as miscellaneous fees, GHC 175 as uniform and clothing fees, GHC 97.5 as teaching and learning support fees and GHC 35 as PTA levies.
She said continuing boarding students are required to pay GHC 348 as miscellaneous fees and GHC 37 as PTA fees. The fees for continuing day students are GHC 38 and GHC 35 as miscellaneous and PTA fees respectively.
Measures to prevent the charging of unapproved fees
The Minister said the ministry had established a committee to standardise the charging of fees in all schools in the country.
The committee, she said, makes recommendations on approved fees to be charged by schools every year for approval of the ministry.
Heads of schools and the general public, she added, are notified of the approved fees.
“For instance, the approved fees to be charged by heads in the 2014/2015 academic year have been circulated to all the major stakeholders including the heads in a letter dated September 2, 2014 and further publicised on the ministry’s website for the information of the general public,” she added.
Complaints Unit
Prof Opoku-Agyemang said the ministry had also established a complaints unit to receive complaints form stakeholders pertaining to issues on education including the charging of unapproved fees.
The complaints, she said, are always verified and acted upon.
“Mr Speaker, we have had cause to direct the acting Director- General to query and sanction heads who were found culpable charging unapproved fees last year,” she said.
The Ministry, she said, had had several stakeholder fora across the country to, among other things, help enforce the guidelines on approved fees.
She said the district assemblies had been tasked to utilise the district education oversight committees to assist in general monitoring and supervision of the guidelines.
“Mr Speaker, the above measures have yield positive results as the numbers of complaints have been drastically reduced since the beginning of this academic year.The Ministry of Education assures that we shall continue to enforce compliance by all heads of senior high schools until the full implementation of free SHS education, ” she said.
