Ministry to sue recalcitrant schools

Accra, Jan. 29, GNA- Mr. Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Minister of Education, Youth and Sports, on Thursday issued a warning to schools which charge exorbitant fees, saying that the ministry would take legal actions against recalcitrant schools.

He said "any school found charging fees over and above what the ministry has approved of and published in the newspapers, would be considered as acting ultra vires and our lawyers are ready with their guns to fire at such schools."

The Minister was contributing to the debate on the President's State of the Nation Address following a motion by Alhaji Malik Al-Hassan Yakubu, Deputy Majority Chief Whip on January 27, 2003 for the house to thank the President for the address and to debate it.

He said already the ministry has dealt with one school in Nsaban, adding that there were reports of some recalcitrant schools, which the ministry is still investigating to bring the offending schools to book. "If any parent thinks he or she is being duped by the authorities of his or her ward's school, the matter should be reported to the ministry and we will deal with the culprit with no mercy at all," he said.

Mr. Baah-Wiredu announced that currently the ministry was undertaking a regional analysis of educational institutions with the view to increasing the level of education in every region.

He said the Ministry's research revealed that some schools presented as little as two candidates for the Senior Secondary School (SSS) final examination, while another school presented only six candidates.

The Minister said measures were being put in place to provide the necessary assistance for such schools to be able to qualify more of their students for the final examinations, with the view to creating a balance on the national education landscape.

Mr. Baah-Wiredu said the government has so far approved about 38.8 billion cedis from the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) to the universities, polytechnics and Secondary Schools in the country for developments of specific faculties among others.

"We have approved 6.6 billion cedis for the University of Ghana, Legon, 5.5 billion cedis for Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), 1.6 billion cedis for The University of Education, Winneba, 3.5 billion cedis for Cape Coast University, 3.3 billion for University of Developmental Studies (UDS) and hundreds of millions of cedis for the polytechnics.

He said the focus of the GETFund is to improve access to quality education and ensure effective management of the educational institutions in the country, adding that the ministry will not compromise on that.

Mr. Modestus Ahiable alleged that as a result of the approved fees the ministry published in the newspapers, some schools, "including where my children schools, who were charging less than the approved fees, came back to us the parents and demanded arrears to the tune of over 120,000 cedis.

He urged the Minister to check the records and see if such schools had the right to claim arrears from parents.

Alhaji Mumumi Abudu Seidu said much more is needed to be done to improve access to quality education in the country, adding that "the President was expected to have used his final State of the Nation address for this term to apologize to the communities the NPP government failed to deliver their campaign promises to."