8 JHS students to miss BECE registration
Eight final-year junior high school students of TED Academy at Banana Inn in Accra are likely to miss this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) due to their inability to pay GH¢300 each as registration fee charged by their school.
Advertisement
As a result of their inability to pay the amount, the school authorities prevented them from writing a mock examination.
The guardians of the affected students told the Daily Graphic that the director of the school, Mr George Tedeku, had told them at a parent-teacher association (PTA) meeting that they were required to pay GH¢300 each to register their children for the examination.
PTA meeting
The guardians, who wanted to remain anonymous, said parents who attended the PTA meeting (held for final-year students) complained bitterly about the exorbitant registration fees charged by the school.
At the meeting, the director of the school told them the fees constituted the transportation and feeding cost for all the 28 BECE candidates.
They said they challenged the director of the about school registration fee but he refused to back down on the payment.
“We conducted an investigation to ascertain the appropriate registration charge for a BECE candidate and we were told by the Ghana Education Service that it was GH¢15 per candidate,” one parent said.
The director
When the Daily Graphic contacted Mr Tedeku, he admitted charging each final-year student GH¢300 for the BECE registration.
Other Trending Stories
He explained that the amount constituted various expenses including the cost of transporting the candidates from the school to the examination centre.
Mr Tedeku said the amount also covered the cost of a graduation ceremony, a party for the pupils offer the examination and the feeding of the candidates during the final examination.
He also admitted that students who had not paid the full amount or made part payment were not allowed to take part in the mock examination which commenced on Monday, January 27.
According to Mr Tedeku, eight students out of the 28 registered candidates had paid the registration fee in full but he could not confirm the number of students who had made part payment.
When asked if he was aware of the GH¢15 fee charged by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) as the appropriate registration fee, he admitted to that knowledge and explained further that since all the candidates had paid the registration fee of GH¢15, they would all write the examination.
“However, students who do not pay the full GH¢300 would not enjoy the other privileges such as the feeding, transportation, graduation and the after party,” he added.
Response from guardians
The guardians, in their response, rejected the claims of the director.
They argued that the claims of privileges from the director were not true because he allegedly deceived parents who paid almost the same amount last year, yet their children were not given any such privileges.
Response from GES
The Public Affairs Director of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mr Parker-Allotey, told the Daily Graphic that the GES was monitoring the various basic schools to establish the schools charging unapproved fees.
He confirmed the approved registration fee for BECE candidates as GH¢15 and further stated that the GES would sanction any institution found culpable of charging unapproved fees.