DO YOU KNOW THAT: SHS Students In Ghana Can’t Afford Fees & Therefore Schools May Have To Close Down?

How far has the nation strived to promote good quality and affordable education as a means of changing the country for the better? There’s always been the great divide of those who can afford and does who cannot.

According to reports, most Senior High Schools (SHS) could soon run into serious financial difficulties, if they fail to retrieve huge sums of money owed them by students who have just finished writing the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

The heads are now thinking of clues as to how to get the parents and guardians of the defaulting students to either pay on their own volition or through compulsion, and also vowed to ensure that every fee owed by every child is collected before they do whatever they want to do for themselves in the future.

In my opinion, free education should be given to senior secondary level and not just basic. That is one of the main reasons why government collect taxes, not to luxuriously furnish a room for a president. Politicians (who don’t do anything apart from bickering) can comfortably see their children through school whiles the masses struggle to do same.

There is only one reason for non-payment of fees – the average Ghanaian cannot afford it, simple! The little money in their pockets has taken from them with a promise of a better Ghana agenda. The supposed better Ghana agenda in my opinion has led to the creation of political billionaires overnight on the sweat and toil of hardworking Ghanaians whilst the masses continue to be suppressed by mounting debt from government borrowing, which invariably ends in the pockets of these politicians.

This situation brings to the fore, how difficult it has been for some families if not a greater majority of Ghanaians to make ends meet with their meagre salaries, which doesn’t go far enough to take care of their needs– but they pay taxes on every commodity in the country.

The masses continue to suffer from the unavailability of utilities, which they have paid for. Some of these parents have not even been paid for months so where do they get the money from?

Even if they pay, authorities will loot the money anyway, and still refuse to fund public schools and at the same time use the stolen money to establish their own private schools which they hand over to others to run as proxies – and charge dollars.

If the state can pay huge sums to of monies to undeserved companies and people, it means we can also prioritize education by running a free SHS system without parents being chased for monies they don’t have.

It will be best if government pays off these debts to keep the schools afloat and rethink about education systems in the country. This is not the way the country needs to be governed and Ghana deserves better. The nation deserves better, the people deserve better and  are they demanding the best right now? I can’t tell.

The fact of the matter is; the country is not moving forward!