Parents to pay last year's fees as Govt absorbs increase

Accra, Oct. 14, GNA - The Cabinet has directed the Ministry of Finance to absorb the increase of Senior Secondary School (SSS) fees demanded by the Ghana Education Service (GES) in order not to over-burden parents. A statement signed by Nana Akomea, Minister of Information, on Tuesday the Cabinet's took the decision at its meeting on Thursday, October 6.

It said: "Parents would, therefore, pay last year's rate of 1,279,000 cedis as the Government's subsidy rise from 310,000 cedis per student per year to 394,000 cedis per student per year."

GES had earlier on requested for an adjustment of fees from 1,589,000 cedis a year or 529,000 cedis per term for 2002/2003 to 1,672,000 cedis a year or 557,333 cedis per term for 2003/2004.

The statement said Cabinet also took notice of the various ancillary charges such as Parent Teacher Association (PTA) dues, library fees among other charges that would swell up the total fee paid in SSS adding that it had set up a sub-committee to undertake a review of these fees and charges in order to rationalize them so that they did not become unnecessary burdens on parents.