Takoradi TTI demands full fees from final year students despite 50% waiver

Authorities at the Takoradi Technical Institute (TTI) in the Western Region are demanding full fees from final year students for the third term despite a 50 per cent waiver announced by the government last week.

The Ghana Education Service on March 29 announced that all final year students in the various public senior high schools across the country pay only 50 per cent of their school fees for the entire third term.

The GES management explained the decision was necessitated by the fact that the final year students will spend only seven weeks of the entire 14-week third term in school.

However, the authorities at TTI are demanding the final year students pay their full third term fees of GHC130, something the students are protesting.

To force the students to pay the amount, the school is insisting full fees are paid before the final year students are given their index numbers to sit for their WASSCE, which begins on April 9.

The situation has caused the students to demonstrate against the stance of the school authorities.

Some dissatisfied students thronged the premises of Takoradi-based Connect FM Thursday morning to register their displeasure against the stance taken by the school authorities.

“They are cheating us. We heard the announcement of the 50% reduction on air. Our mates at Cape Tech (Cape Coast Technical Institute are paying 90 cedis. Why should we pay 130?” one students wondered.

When contacted, a management member of the school who declined to speak on record insisted the decision by the school to take full fees was not against the directive of the GES.

He argued the directive was for students who are in boarding house and does not cover day students as in the case of the Takoradi Technical Institute.



The students are insisting they deserve a 50% reduction in fees as announced by the GES In his estimation, the 50 per cent reduction is for the feeding fees of boarding students and since TTI is a day school, the final year students do not qualify to enjoy the waiver.



He said they would take advantage of the upcoming WASSCE exams to retrieve all arrears of school fees.

Meanwhile, the management member said the school managers have invited GES officials from the Sekondi Takoradi Metropolitan Office to explain the issue to the students.