GES warns JHS Heads over school selection dues collection

The Ghana Education Service (GES) following complaints that some Heads of public Junior High Schools are collecting monies from 2022 BECE graduates as school selection dues has urged such illegal acts to cease immediately.

In a statement copied to AcademicWeek, the Education Service said some of the monies collected are purported to be payment for Parents and Teachers Association (PTA) dues, clearance of final year students and extra classes organized.

“Management wishes to remind all stakeholders that the collections are illegal and authorized. The school selection activity is entirely free and as such, no levy or fee should be charged in connection with it,” GES stated in the release.

Regional Directors of Education have been urged to notify Metro/Municipal and District Directors of Education to caution all Heads of Basic schools that such extortions are unwarranted and should be stopped immediately.

“Management wishes to assure the general public that the school selection does not involve the collection of monies. Any such request should be reported to the Regional/District Education offices for redress,” the Service noted.

Commenced on Monday, October 31, 2022, the nationwide selection of schools exercise by prospective Junior High School (JHS) students who sat for the 32nd edition of the BECE for School will end on Friday, November 18, 2022.

A total number of 552,276 candidates representing 276,988 males and 275,288 females. from 18,501 schools participated in the 2022 edition of the BECE for School Candidates at 2,023 centres throughout the country.

The 32nd edition of the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) administered by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) for School and Private Candidates, 2022 started from October 17, 2022, to October 21, 2022.

This year, two groups of BECE candidates (School and Private), for the first time, wrote the national examination at the same period. This was due to the consistently low entries for the BECE for Private Candidates over the years.