Gov’t to pay SHS subsidies next week

The Ghana Education Service (GES) has disclosed that the first tranche of subsidy payments to government assisted Senior High Schools (SHS) will be effected next week between July 14 and 19.

This comes after the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) threatened to close down schools due to the delay in subsidy payments for the 2013/2014 academic year.

Government is expected to pay GHC 25 per student per term.

According to the Education Ministry, the Ministry of Finance is processing the payments for the various schools.

Speaking to Citi News, the acting Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Charles Aheto Tsegah assured that ‘in the course of next week, they will get this first tranche of money.’

He commended the heads of the various schools for managing the affairs of the schools despite the unavailability of funds saying, ‘that has proven that they are real managers a lot of work is being done.’

But CHASS is warning that its members are under threat of being sued by their creditors following the delay.

The Greater Accra regional chairman of CHASS, Africanus Anane said the heads of schools are frustrated.

‘If you have money to be given to a creditor and the person is on your heels, I know in no time, most of the heads will be taken to court for their inability to pay these suppliers,’ he said.

The GES has also guaranteed it will strive to ensure Senior High Schools are not dragged to court.

‘We are going to ensure they do not get sued on account of the demonstration of great creativity and initiative,’ Aheto -Tsegah stated.

This notwithstanding, Mr. Anane said it was unclear when the various Senior High Schools will close down since the schools had different capacities in withstanding the difficulties.

There have been meetings between the leadership of CHASS, the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Ministry of Education.

Responding to whether the heads of schools were confident in the assurance from the GES and government, Mr. Anane said: ‘For them, they will commit themselves and say that it will come but it is only God that can tell when the money will come.’