Government again warns of severe penalty against School Heads who demand money before admission

Deputy Minister of Education Dr. Yaw Adutwum has again cautioned heads of Public Senior High Schools against taking money from parents before admitting them into their schools. 

He said this year's enrolment into Senior High Schools is totally free and any school head caught taking money from any parent will be severely dealt with. 

Speaking on GBC’s Current Affairs Programme, "Focus," Dr Adutwum said government is determined to give every Ghanaian child access to quality education. 

On sustaining the free SHS policy, Dr. Adutwum said the Finance Minister will give full details as to how the policy will be sustained going forward in the budget statement for next year. 

The Ranking member of the Parliamentary select Committee on Education, Peter Nortsu, said the policy falls short of what the NPP government promised Ghanaians during the campaign.  

He said for second and third year students to be left out, is discriminatory.

Selorm Brantie of Imani Ghana, a policy think tank said the government can sustain the policy if the leakages in some of the public institutions are blocked. 

He said Imani Ghana is not against the free SHS programme but is concerned about government's failure to give full details of the implementation framework.

Meanwhile, the Ghana Education Service Council will Wednesday afternoon meet to review and assess the implementation of the free SHS policy so far. 

Key among issues to be considered is the appropriate sanctions for head teachers who demand money from first year students. 

Director General of the GES, Professor Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa said some head teachers have already been summoned to Accra to respond to queries. 

He gave the assurance that anyone found culpable will be sanctioned.  

Professor Opoku- Amankwa asked head teachers to visit their portal at cssps.gov.gh/shsheads to verify students placed in their schools. 

He said the portal gives real time update of list of students placed in various schools. 

This is to eliminate the situation where head teachers are turning away students on the basis that their names are not on the list initially provided to the schools.

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