School Authorities are collecting fees from BECE re-sitters

Some basic school authorities in the Kwahu South District are collecting tuition fees from Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) candidates whose results were recently cancelled due to leakage of some of the examination papers.

The school authorities are demanding the fees from the candidates despite the directives from the Minister of Education to school authorities not to charge such pupils any tuition fees.

The Ghana News Agency reports that its investigations revealed that the private schools in the district were collecting between 40,000 to 60,000 cedis as extra classes fee, while the public schools were demanding that the candidates pay between 16,000 to 20,000 cedis or five hundred cedis a day for the one month revision classes before they re-write their examination this year.

Authorities of some of the schools the GNA visited explained that the normal revision classes period from 7.30 a.m. to 2.30 p.m. were free but charge something minimal for the three to five hours extra classes they organise for the candidates.

Mr Obuadum Banahene, the District Chairman of the Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS) said some schools didn't collect the third term fees from the candidates since they wrote the examination before the commencement of the third term and were therefore, collecting them as revision classes fee.

When the District Directorate of the Ghana Education Service was contacted, Mrs. Nicholina Amissah, an Assistant Director of Human Resource Management and Development said they were not aware that some school authorities were collecting fees from the candidates and promised to send the monitoring team of the directorate to check it.

It would be recalled that the Minister of Education, Professor Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi at a news conference in Accra, directed that all candidates of the 2002 BECE should rewrite the four main subjects, which leaked during the examination at no cost to the candidates. The directive stated that all expenses involved would be borne by the printing houses that printed the papers and the West African Examination Council (WAEC).