THE 47th National Conference of Heads of Assisted Senior High Schools (CHASS) has ended in Ho, with a call for the resolution of a conflict between the West Africa Examinations Council (WAEC) and senior high school (SHS) managements in respect of the announcement of final examination results and payment of school fees.
In view of the practice whereby WAEC persistently posts the results of the West Africa Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) on the Internet, long before it gets to schools, heads of the SHS may have no alternative than to be compelled to send examination candidates who still owe fees home, three clear weeks before the commencement of the final examination, until they pay fully.
This was contained in an 11-point communiqué signed by the National Secretary of CHASS, Mr Felix Essah-Hiemo, and issued at the end of the conference held in Ho on the theme, “ Senior High School Education: The challenges and the way forward”.
The communiqué passionately appealed to politicians to refrain from directly interfering with school administration, but rather use all due processes available to seek redress for problems.
It expressed appreciation for the continued efforts of the Government in providing vehicles to a good number of schools, and said the exercise was accelerated to cover all schools by the end of this academic year.
The communiqué said in order to ensure successful absorption of the fourth year students of the 2010-2011 academic year and to solve the serious accommodation problems of the schools, it was important to address the infrastructural needs of the schools and complete all existing projects with special attention to the less-endowed schools.
It, therefore, appealed to the Government to urgently review other fees such as school uniforms, house dresses, jerseys, examination stationery and postage to meet production costs of suppliers.
It further appreciated the Government’s efforts at adjusting the feeding cost per student from GH¢0.80 to GH¢ 1.20, but reiterated that it was woefully inadequate and must be adjusted upwards to bring it at par with the feeding cost per pupil per meal of the school feeding programme of basic schools to reflect current market prices.
The communiqué touched on the conditions of service pertaining to the appointment of substantive heads to schools, and said efforts must be intensified to avoid the situation where district directors were made to act as heads of schools for very long periods.
It also appealed to the Ghana Education Service to, as a matter of expediency, automatically promote all substantive heads who were still at the rank of assistant director 1 to the rank of deputy director.
The communiqué further appealed to the Government to increase the responsibility allowance for senior housemasters and heads of departments by 50 per cent of the salaries, pending the fulfilment of the proposal to make those positions as established posts which match with their salaries and allowances pro rata.
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