Interdiction of headteachers charging illegal fees apt – Education specialist

An education specialist and program evaluator, Divine Kpe has supported the interdiction of 11 headteachers accused of charging unauthorized fees to first-year senior high school students.

While describing the situation as “unfortunate,” Mr. Kpe questioned why the headteachers would disregard an explicit directive from the Ghana Education Service (GES) not to charge extra fees.

“We shouldn’t be here, especially when you see GES giving directives to their employees…They were not supposed to charge the students, and to disregard the directive of your employer is inappropriate,” Mr. Kpe remarked.

He emphasized that if the headteachers had any concerns regarding fees, they should have used official channels, such as the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS), to voice them.

“If you have a concern to charge anything, it should be through your own body, which is CHASS, but they didn’t do that; they went ahead to do their own thing, which is very unacceptable, especially now that we have a harmonized prospectus,” he stated.

Mr. Kpe added that “previously, we knew that every school had its prospectus, but now we have a unified prospectus, and if we do not protect this harmonized prospectus and allow the heads to be introducing their things, what it means is that the progress we’ve made in having a unified prospectus will be undone.”

“We support the interdiction to allow for investigation. I read through some of the responses from the headteachers, and I felt some of the actions the heads took weren’t very challenging.”

He praised the GES for taking action, noting that interdiction is not the same as dismissal.

“At the end of the day, investigations will identify those who were compromised,” he stated and urged that the GES should make its findings public.

The Ghana Education Service has interdicted 11 senior high school headteachers for charging unapproved fees.

The headmistress of O’Reilly Senior High School is specifically accused of collecting unauthorized funds during the admission process, prompting her interdiction.

Also, the headmistress of Ghana Senior High School faces allegations of selling unauthorized items to students, including a ceremonial cloth priced at GH?200, tracksuits at GH?250, and other items.

Consequently, she too has been asked to step aside to facilitate further investigations.

Nine other headteachers accused of similar offenses have been asked to step aside.

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