Parliamentary Committee Condemns High School Fees

The Parliamentary Accounts Committee has condemned the high school fees being charged in the North, which it said had the tendency of defeating the purpose of the free education policy of the Government.

The Committee said the high fees being charged by the educational
authorities could throw a lot of students out of school and increase
the cost of education.

Members noted that if parents could pay school fees as high as
GH¢300, then there was no need for the Government to continue its free
educational policy to the area.

The committee made this revelation in Tamale on Monday after an
encounter with some schools captured by the Auditor General’s Report
from 2004 to 2007.

It will be sitting for three days in Tamale to examine the
accounts of 42 pre-tertiary schools in the Northern, Upper East and
Upper West Regions.

Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, Chairman of the Committee urged public
institutions to abide by the legal and professional accounting
principles when handling public funds. He said the heads of these institutions would be answering questions relating to lapses in expenditure and possibly face sanctions.