The President of the Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS), Prof. Damasus Tuurosung says the astronomical increase in BECE and West African Examination Council (WAEC) registration charges for private schools is an issue of concern to the association.
He said the high fee charged for WAEC registration is a cause for some students to drop out of school since they cannot afford the registration fee.
This comes at the back of the pre-tertiary private schools’ manifesto which the GNAPS presented at a press conference earlier this week.
Speaking on ATL FM’s Atlantic Wave, the President of the Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS), Prof. Damasus Tuurosung admonished the government to subsidize or at best absorb the fees charged for the WAEC registration for private schools as done for the public schools.
He indicated that the government initially paid the registration fee for both public and private school students.
However, after a while, that of private schools was subsidized and subsequently removed leading to the astronomical increments in the BECE and WASSCE charges.
He said “In the case of the WASSE this year, the candidates are paying at least four hundred and sixty-five Ghana’s BECE as registration fee. This is aside from the amount they pay for oral examination, practical examination, and the registration, some other add-on charges for the registration itself.
Coming to the BECE fee, a one hundred- and seventy-eight per cent increment in the fees over just these four years. Over the same period, those of us who are operating private schools have only increased our fees by forty-five per cent and we are recording increasing cases of candidates who are unable to register either for the BECE or WASSE because they just could not afford it. So, such students become dropouts,” he continued.
The reiterated that private schools are major stakeholders in the examination hence WAEC should consider Private Schools in a dialogue before increasing the fees.
Prof. Damasus Tuurosung revealed that a one-year ultimatum has been served for this issue to be resolved if not the GNAPS will be forced to take an alternative action.
“So, we are not hoping that we will get to the point of boycott, but if it comes to it, our students will have an alternative. No one says that in this country we must have only one examination, the time has come for WAEC to have a competitor in the system so that the monopoly of WAEC conducting our exams will be broken.”
Prof. Damasus Tuurosung also mentioned among some challenges that generated the need for the pre-tertiary private schools’ manifesto is the high cost of doing business in school.
He therefore advocated for the private school manifesto to find expression in the manifesto of the political parties.
he explained that this approach would help to address the challenges besetting the private school sector.
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Source: Flora Tang/ATLFMNEWS
