Government to pay full BECE registration fee
Plans are underway for the government to pay the registration fees of pupils writing the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), a Deputy Minister of Education, Mr Alex Kyeremeh, has said.
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“The ministry and GES are currently drawing up a programme to absorb the 100 per cent BECE registration fees. The programme will be implemented as soon as funding is secured,” he stated on the floor of Parliament last Wednesday.
Mr Kyeremeh, who was answering a question posed by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Asene/Akroso/Manso, Mr Yaw Owusu-Boateng, on when the government would bear the full cost of the BECE, said it was expected that the decision to pay BECE registration fees would lessen the burden on parents and guardians.
Government’s component
He told the House that currently the government bore 70 per cent of the registration fees for all BECE candidates, adding that the amount involved increased from GH¢768,000 in 2000 to GH¢14,398,703 million in 2014.
The deputy minister explained that the increase in the figure was due to the significant rise in the number of BECE candidates as a result of the impact of social intervention programmes such as the capitation grant, free school uniforms and exercise books, the school feeding programme, among other interventions.
He, however, stated that he would need more time to make available the answer to a follow-up question by Mr Owusu-Boateng on the increase in the number of BECE candidates every year to aid planning.
Asked within which time frame the total absorption would be done and the source of funding for the payment of the BECE registration fees, Mr Kyeremeh said a committee which had been put in place to oversee the BECE fees payment would come up with the answers in due course.
Increased fees
He told Parliament that the BECE fee per student had also increased from GH¢35 in 2013 to GH¢50 in 2014.
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The deputy minister was answering a question posed by the MP for Komenda/Edina/Eguafo/Abrem, Dr Stephen Nana Ato Arthur, on whether or not it was only the increase in the number of candidates and social intervention programmes that were responsible for the increase in the fees.
Writer’s email: edmund.asante@graphic.com.gh