The Government has set aside an amount of GH¢194,523.37 for the payment of the fees for Free SHS for the first term.
Professor Kwesi Opoku-Amankwa, the Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), said the amount represents the initial amount that would go to the schools for the running of the schools as part of Free SHS programme.
Briefing the media at Aburi, he said, already an amount of GH¢61 million has been paid for the third year students last academic term.
He said with the revision that has been done, an additional GH¢14 million would be paid to the schools for the third years while a total of GH¢85 million would be paid for the second year students.
“First years, with our projection, will received GH¢95 million. When you put all together, you are up to the GH¢194,523.73,” he said.
Prof Opoku-Amankwa said Management of GES has also taken note of the issues which have come up with regard to feeding and is in the process of reviewing the menu for the schools.
He said currently, the Food Committee made up of all significant stakeholders in the system are studying proposals Management has submitted to it and “it is expected that by the time the Form One students re-open, concrete decisions would have been taken on the matter”.
“Management wishes to emphasise that the principles underlying the concept of supply of food items by the Ghana Buffer Stock Company Limited remains the same but we are working hard to ensure that the challenges identified with the system are addressed.”
Prof Opoku-Amankwa announced that the Minister of Education has authorised an increase in the percentage of money released to schools to cover perishable items from 20 per cent to 30 per cent.
This, he said, would relieve the schools of the pressure of spending on some of their needs.
Prof Opoku-Amankwa said adequate number of textbooks have been made available to all the schools for use by all students.
“If there is any school that does not have adequate supply of textbooks for the four core subjects, the school should draw the attention of their respective Regional Directors through their District Directors for attention”.
On replacement of defaced or misplaced textbooks supplied to students, Prof Opoku-Amankwa said, Management has issued a directive on how these should be handled and what parents or guardians would be expected to do to replace all such defaced or misplaced textbooks.
“However, students who have either defaced or misplaced textbooks should not be denied the textbooks for the class.”
On standardised prospectus, the Director-General said, last year together with Regional Directors and Heads of Schools, we agreed on a standardised prospectus for the first year students.
He said it was expected that these standards would guide this year’s admission as well and Management wishes to encourage all Heads of schools and all other school managers to adopt the standardised prospectus for all students.
Prof Opoku-Amankwa said schools would continue to supply uniforms to first year students and each student would be entitled to two school uniforms, which shall be managed as was done last year.
With regards to school cloth, he said, Government through the Ministry of Education has entered into arrangement with Akosombo Textiles Limited to supply the materials for the school cloth to dressmakers of the schools.
Source:GNA
