Gov't to pay BECE registration fees

Government is drawing a programme to absorb the Basic Education Certificate Education (BECE) Registration fees, and the programme will be implemented as soon as funding is secured.

Mr. Alex Kyeremeh, Deputy Minister of Education, expressed the hope that the arrangement would go a long way to lessen the burden on parents.

The Deputy Minister made the announcement in an answer to questions on the education sector, posed on the floor of Parliament on Wednesday.

Mr. Yaw Owusu-Boateng, MP for Asene Akroso Manso, wanted to know when the Government would bear the full cost of the BECE.

Government currently bears 70 per cent of the registration fees of the candidates, but the amount involved, according to the Minister, had increased from Ghc768,000 to almost Ghc14.4 million due to a significant increase of those who registered for the examination.

This, he said had impacted on other social intervention programmes such as the Capitation Grant, Free School Uniforms, Exercise Books and the School Feeding Programme.

Mr Owusu-Boateng said Government is yet to pay last term’s arrears of the Capitation Grant.

He said Government is reviewing the Contents of the Commutative Records and the Continuous Assessment Cards, which form 30 per cent of the marks of BECE candidate with a view to scraping or improving them.

Templates of the performance of the school pupils recorded from their exercise books were in the meantime being used since the Cumulative Record Cards, Continuous Assessment Cards, and Pupils Records Cards were not procured in 2013.

According to the Deputy Minister, there was a peculiar situation last year which affected the procurement and distribution of the Teachers Note Books, Attendance Registers, Cumulative Records, Continuous Assessment Cards and Chalk to schools.

He said for instance, the Budget was prepared and submitted very late (around March 2013), which resulted in the late acquisition of the Commencement Certificate from the Ministry of Finance.

The items, the Deputy Minister said, have however since been supplied to the schools.