Stop taking exam fees now! GES orders public schools

In a rather strange turn of events, the Ghana Education Service (GES) has ordered all heads of public basic schools to stop taking exam fees for the second term examinations. At the time of making the public announcement, public schools had already charged and collected examination fees for the conduct of the 2nd term examinations across the country.

The call from the GES arose due to pressure mounted by some heads of schools on parents to be responsible and pay for the termly assessment of learners. The issue heightened after some parents who were unwilling to pay the exam fees were informed by some heads that parents who have not paid for the exam fees will have their wards sent home.

It is important to put on record that the government, through the GES, has not made funds available for schools to carry out the termly examination per information available to this portal. Again, most public schools, through the Parent Associations, approve exam fees at their meetings to aid teachers and public schools to finance internal assessments.

It is strange that while the GES is pushing for the stoppage of exam fee collection, it is not calling for the same with regard to the collection of BECE 2025 mock fees.

In an interview on Morning Starr with Naa Dedei Tettey, the Acting Director of GES, Professor Ernest Kofi Davis, stated that public basic schools are not to charge students examination fees. He labelled such actions as unacceptable and warned that any head of school found violating the policy would face sanctions.

“I have requested my team to write to school heads to inform them that they are not supposed to take exam fees from public school students, so they have to desist from doing that. They are not expected to take examination fees from students, so what they are doing is unacceptable. If we get any head doing that, we’ll sanction that head.”

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The big question is this: are we going back to the situation where public school teachers were directed to write end-of-term examination questions on blackboards? Such a decision by the GES will only under-resource schools for internal assessments and also widen the gap between public and private schools at a time that public schools are already disadvantaged in many instances.

This stop taking exam fees directive would surely have a negative effect on public schools’ end of second term examinations. If all parents do not pay for the examination, the schools are likely to run into debts.