Don’t impose fees, levies to make education difficult to access – Deputy Director, GES

 Mr Anthony Boateng, Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), has warned school heads against imposing fees and levies that could make education more difficult to obtain.

“The financial circumstances of any Ghanaian child should not be a barrier to his or her access to education and so the GES does not accept the imposition of a levy or fees under any condition in our schools,” he said.

Mr Boateng, who was speaking at the fourth annual Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG) consultation forum on education in Koforidua, said while the church and all other stakeholders were welcome to provide support to schools, they were not permitted to levy or impose fees.

“Our experience has shown that such levies and fees have deprived many students access to education,” he said, “to the extent that for failure to pay such levies, students have been denied the opportunity to take part in examinations and we will not countenance that under any circumstance.”

He said that GES was working to reverse challenges in the education sector, and would resist any attempt to capitalise on only one challenge in order to deny access to education to a certain group of children.

The Church established the annual education forum four years ago under the leadership of Reverend Professor Joy Obiri Yeboah Mante as the Church Moderator, to interact with heads of Presbyterian educational institutions and strengthen the Church’s role and partnership with the government and other stakeholders in education.

The heads of 25 senior high schools, five Presbyterian Colleges of Education, two universities, and two vocational schools attended the forum on the theme: “Promoting academic excellence and moral uprightness in our educational institutions through religious discipline: reflection on the past, the present, and the role of the Presbyterian Church.”

Rev Mante expressed concern about the difficulties facing the educational sector, such as the absence of governing boards at some colleges of education and the current food shortage challenging SHSs.

“As key partners of the government in the area of education, we want to see a well-coordinated and strengthened partnership for the advancement of quality and morally upright educational doctrines,” he said. – GNA