CHASS calls for debate on subsidy

Page 64
Feb 14, 2008

THE President of the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS), Mr Samuel Ofori-Adjei, has called for national debate on whether or not the government should continue paying subsidy for all students in second cycle schools.
“I think there are some parents who are capable of funding their children’s education and they should be encouraged to do so. Those with special needs can be identified and catered for,” he said in an interview with the Daily Graphic yesterday.
Presently, about 80 per cent of students in the well-endowed senior high schools came from private basic schools where some of them paid as much as three times the current fees charged at the second cycle level per term.
Mr Ofori-Adjei said a lot of resources were needed to provide more teaching and learning materials and expand infrastructure to accommodate more students.
The subsidies paid by the government cover general stationery, first aid, building maintenance, sports fee, cultural fee and sanitation. The rest are postage, reports of cumulative records, textbook user fee, practical fee and furniture maintenance. Hitherto, fees charged on these were paid by parents, but the government decided to take care of them.
The key funding sources for the subsidy scheme had been the HIPC and the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund).
For 2002/2003, the amount paid for 310,995 students was GH¢ 7,028,487.00 (¢70,284,870,000.00) while for 2003/2004, GH¢ 10,013,346.90 (¢100,133,469,000.00) was paid for 349,506 students.
For 2004/2005, the amount paid for 378,832 students was GH¢ 12,399,171.36 (¢123,991.713,600.00). An amount of ¢137,762,206,500, equivalent to GH¢ 13,776,220.65, was paid for 420,905 students during 2005/2006.
The figures paid from 2002 to 2006 included those for utilities.
Mr Ofori-Adjei said there was the need for a national debate for stakeholders to make inputs on the matter.
He said the delay in the release of the subsidy was not only affecting academic activities, but other activities in the schools, adding that but for the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) levies, things would have gone bad.
“We sometimes use part of the PTA levies till the subsidy is released and the PTA reimbursed,” he explained, adding that sometimes schools used moneys that should have otherwise been used for other purposes to pay for things that the subsidy should have taken care of.
Mr Ofori-Adjei said CHASS would ensure that heads of schools submitted their signed lists of students on time so as not to delay the release of the subsidy, since the signed lists, which contain the names and number of students, were used in releasing the money.
He, however, suggested that the government could go ahead and release the subsidy for continuing students as schools took steps to get signed lists of their first-year students.
The government had been concerned about fees paid by students and in September 2001, it gave a directive that the level of fees to be charged should not exceed that of the previous level, even though approval was given for an increase in feeding fee from 23GHp to 30GHp per day.
The government, therefore, agreed to subsidise the difference between the old fees and that of the new fees with GH¢31.00 per student per annum.