The Ghana Education Service (GES) on Monday warned heads of senior high schools (SHS) against collecting third term fees before the term begins on May 5 this year.
�It is against Ministry of Education and GES policy for parents to pre-pay fees before the beginning of a particular term,� Mr Charles Parker-Allotey, GES Public Relations Director told the Ghana News Agency in an interview.
He warned that any headmaster who flouted the directive could be severely sanctioned.
Mr Parker-Allotey was responding to a GNA survey last week which has unearth �fees payment schemes,� being used by some heads of both private and public SHS to demand third terms fees mid-way through the second term from the final year students.
GNA investigations revealed that most of the schools have issued directives to parents and guardians demanding that form three students pay their third term fees in full by the end of the second week in March.
The investigations revealed that students who failed to pay these fees would not be issued with West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) Index Numbers and would not write the final examination which would commence from April 2.
Mr Parker-Allotey explained that students were supposed to pay their fees on termly basis, adding that, no candidate should be denied his or her WASSCE index number or be prevented from writing the examination.
He said the directive which was issued by the GES and the Ministry of Education in 2013 was still in force and all heads of SHSs were to abide by it.
The GES Public Relations Director however, said most heads of Public SHSs were complying with the directive but admitted that it had come to the notice of GES that some private SHSs heads were trying to contravene the directive.
He said the GES would be meeting the executives of the Ghana National Association of Private Schools and the heads of private SHSs on the issue, to make sure that they complied.
Mr Parker-Allotey recounted that during the 2012/2013 academic year, the heads of SHSs made available to the WAEC the list of candidates who owed school fees.
The students were permitted to write the exams but when the WASSCE results were released, these candidates� result were not placed online and therefore, they were forced to settle their fees before they could access their results.
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