You are here: HomeNews2012 10 12Article 252672

Opinions of Friday, 12 October 2012

Columnist: Thompson, Kofi

Will Parents Still Have To Pay Fees

To Secondary Schools During A New Patriotic Party Tenure?

By Kofi Thompson

What is one to make of those who say that parents will still have to pay to put their wards through secondary school, when the era of free secondary education dawns under a New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration?

According to those killjoys, even when free secondary education starts under an NPP administration, apparently secondary schools will still ask parents to make certain payments each term.

Surely, any talk of such a cost element demands further clarification by the NPP of that particular policy proposal?

Are the many financially challenged families who have decided to vote the NPP into power in the December polls, precisely because it has promised free secondary education in Ghana, to understand that despite that NPP undertaking, there will still apparently be a cost element involved for Ghanaian families with offspring in secondary schools?

Surely, in order that there is no future misunderstanding, should media houses in Ghana not make it their business to publish the exact amount the Ghanaian nation-state will pay on behalf of each secondary school studentin Ghana's government assisted secondary schools - and the amount which parents would be asked to pay for their wards in those selfsame secondary schools, by the school authorities?

The NPP must tell Ghanaians whether despite its popular vote-winning free secondary education policy proposal, it is indeed true that there will still be a cost element involved for parents whose children attend secondary school in Ghana.

For the benefit of the good people of Ghana and for its own good, the simple question the NPP must answer is: After promising free secondary education in its election manifesto, were it to win power again, will Ghanaian families still have to pay money each school-term to the secondary schools their wards attend, during its tenure? Ghanaians need to know. A word to the wise...

Tel: 027 745 3109.

Email: peakofi.thompson@gmail.com.