GNAPS calls on gov’t to absorb Private schools BECE, WASSCE fees
The President of the Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS), Damasus Tuurosong on behalf of his outfit has called on the government to absorb the registration of BECE and WASSCE fees paid by private school students
The President of GNAPS, Professor Damasus Tuurosong has also called for the inclusion of private Senior High Schools across the country in the Free SHS programme and a review of the Education Regulatory Bodies Act 2020 (Act 1023).
The inclusion of private schools in the Free SHS policy he said will save their schools from exorbitant regulatory charges by the National Schools Inspectorate Authority (NaSIA), the National Teaching Council (NTC) and the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA).
This the GNAPS President said is because the Ministry of Education (MoE) and its agencies were “suffocating the non-state sector of education with exorbitant charges for providing services, which, in some cases, ought to be free”.
Citing the 30 per cent priority placement system which advantages public school BECE candidates to be placed in ‘Category A’ Senior High Schools as unfair and discriminatory, Prof Tuurosong has called for its abolishment.
He made the appeal to the former President, John Mahama at the launch of the 2024 annual week celebration of the Ghana National Association of Private Schools in Accra on the theme: “The 2024 elections, GNAPS manifesto.”
Reacting to the GNAPS appeal, the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress, John Dramani Mahama to include private secondary schools in the free senior high school programme when his party wins the December election.
The leader of the opposition NDC party said since many private schools in the country have the necessary infrastructure and human resources to support the programme, it was only proper to rope them in.
He further assured GNAPS that the NDC government would prioritise education by bringing all stakeholders in the industry together to review the entire education structure from the basic to the tertiary level to ensure better outcomes.