Concerned parents of final-year students of the Terchire Senior High School in the Tano North Municipality of the Ahafo Region have complained of the exploitation of students by the management and Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) of the school.
They have cited exorbitant PTA fees and WAEC registration fees for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). The concerned parents, who lodged complaints with The Chronicle in Kumasi, have called for a probe into the activities of the headmaster and his assistants (Administration, Academics and Domestic), the accountant, and the PTA chairman over the past three years.
Allegations are that the management of the school, which has had three headmasters within two years, is having a field day extorting money from students without restraint, as they see the school as a gold mine.
The Chronicle gathered that the school enrolled a total of 506 students for this year’s WASSCE, made up of 105 regular students and 421 midstream admissions from outside schools, including protocol allocations to GES officials.
The school is charging GH¢800 as PTA fees, the total amount of which is disbursed to the PTA (GH¢200), teaching staff (GH¢400), non-teaching staff (GH¢100), and management (GH¢100).
The General Arts and Business students have parted with GH¢4,000 to write the exams, while students offering Science, Agricultural Science and Home Economics paid GH¢4,500.
Besides these payments, students pay GH¢10 for each paper they write in the ongoing examination. The Chronicle gathered that teachers fought over the disbursement of the GH¢10 collected from the students.
Even though it is a Day Community School, the final-year students are accommodated in a makeshift hostel at the old site of the school premises, for which they pay GH¢300, even though the Municipal Education Directorate has cautioned school management against the use of the facility.
The Chronicle’s undercover investigations over the past three weeks have confirmed the fears of complainants.
The headmaster, Samuel Agyapong Baffour, aka “Man of God,” when reached on phone, said he was no longer at post, having handed over the headship to the Municipal Director of Education.
The PTA chairman, Elder Jackson Teffic Mensah’s phone was off when this reporter got to Terchire to hear his side of the story, as earlier agreed.
In the circumstance, Assistant Headmaster (Academics), Issaka Abudu alias “Honourable” (a former Assemblymember), who has assumed headship, was contacted but declined to talk since no formal complaint had been lodged by any parent.
The Accountant, Hajia Wahabu Barikisu, had earlier told The Chronicle that she was unable to respond to the allegations and directed the paper to the headmaster. The school authorities are tight-lipped and would not entertain the reporter, whom they claimed was fake.
The aggrieved parents have appealed to the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) and the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) to launch a full-scale investigation into the allegations, while GES brings persons found culpable of the extortion charges to book.
They recommended the mass transfer of the school management to avoid the extortion in ensuing years, while the GES should adopt a monitoring system to check further exploitation of parents and students in the school.
The parents want heads to roll to serve as a deterrent to other headmasters and school management teams who take advantage of students. A parent who spoke to this reporter on condition of anonymity said he was afraid the exploitation would continue next year if the practice is not nipped in the bud.
According to him, there is the tendency for the management to charge exorbitant fees for midstream admissions next year, even though the second-year students currently number 96 and might soar to about 500 when they write the WASSCE.
Meanwhile, Mr. Stephen Atiah Adams, the Municipal Director of Education, told this reporter in his office at Duayaw Nkwanta that he was not aware of developments at Terchire SHS and assured that his outfit would probe the matter and ensure sanity prevails in the school.
From Oswald P. Freiku, Terchire, Ahafo Region
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