No government policy yet on payment of electricity by SHSs

The Minister of Information and Media Relations, Mr Mahama Ayariga, has stated that the government has not come up with any policy or issued any directive to senior high schools (SHSs) to pay their electricity bills or pass them on to parents.

His statement is supported by the President of the Conference of Heads of Government Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS), Mr Samuel Ofori-Adjei, who said, “we have not been told of any such move; nor have we sighted any document regarding that.”

The Minister and the CHASS President both spoke to the Daily Graphic, in reaction to claims in sections of the media that the government had directed SHSs to pay their utility bills and the schools in turn had stated that they would pass on the bills to parents and guardians.

Currently, SHSs pay the bills of their utilities out of the government subsidies they receive.

Explaining further, Mr Ayariga said Cabinet had requested the Minister of Education to present it with proposed modalities of how the cost would be catered for and said as soon as the proposals were presented, the government would come out with a position on it.

Giving the background to the issue, he said the Minister of Education, at a Cabinet meeting, talked about the challenges the schools would face with the introduction of prepaid meters so she was directed to come out with suggestions on how the government would address these challenges..

For his part, Mr Ofori-Adjei said when the issue of replacement of post-paid with prepaid meters came up, the Ghana Education Service (GES) “saw the danger and made a proposal to the ministry, suggesting exceptions for senior high schools.”