[ 2017-03-18 ]

GES to discipline Heads who do not comply with the rules

SHSs Heads to face sanctions for preventing students from writing WASSCE – GES
The Ghana Education Service (GES) says it is
illegal for any head of a second cycle school to
prevent any final-year student from writing the
West African Senior School Certificate Examination
(WASSCE) for owing school fees.

It has, therefore, warned that any head who is
reported to have prevented students from writing
the WASSCE will be put before a disciplinary
committee, and when found guilty he or she will be
sanctioned accordingly.

The Director of the Secondary Education Division
of the GES, Mr Michael Kofi Inkoom, said in an
interview in Accra yesterday that, “All heads
are instructed not to prevent any student who has
registered with WAEC from writing the
examination.”

The interview was prompted by consistent calls
from aggrieved parents to the Daily Graphic on the
position taken by some heads of second cycle
schools on the payment of school fees by
final-year students.

Mechanisms in place

Mr Inkoom said the GES was aware that some
students owed school fees but that it had put in
place mechanisms to ensure that the students paid
their fees.

He explained that heads of second cycle schools
had been instructed to compile the names of
students who owed fees and send them to the
Secondary Division of the GES for onward
submission to WAEC to block the results of the
affected students until they had finished paying
their fees.

He said such students’ results would not be
displayed online until the students proved with
documentation that they had cleared their fees
before WAEC could unblock their results.

Procedure to unblock

Giving the procedure for a blocked result to be
unblocked, Mr Inkoom said the affected student
needed to go to his or her former school to pay
his or her school fees in full, after which the
headmaster of that school would issue a letter,
which the student would present to the GES, which
would then instruct WAEC to unblock such a
candidate’s result.

“This arrangement has been in place for the past
three years and it has proved to be very
effective. So if a student owes at the time of
writing the exam, the head must allow him or her
to write because he or she has already registered
with WAEC,” he explained.

Pay by instalment

He advised heads of second cycle schools to
negotiate with parents who were not able to pay
their children’s fees at a go to consider paying
in instalments.

Vandalisation of school property

In a related development, Mr Inkoom said
information reaching the GES Headquarters had it
that some final-year students had resorted to
vandalising school property because they felt they
had virtually completed school.

He explained that aside from the destruction of
school property, some students were not prepared
to abide by school rules and regulations.

He said currently two of such schools, one each in
the Upper East and the Northern regions, had been
closed down to prevent further destruction.

He warned that any student caught in that act
would be handed over to the police and he or she
would write his or her final exam while on
suspension.

Source - ultimatefmonline.com

... go Back