The Ghana Education Service has issued a stern warning to public schools collecting unauthorised levies from parents disguised as Parent Teacher Association dues, responding to mounting complaints about extortion during the current admissions period. The directive arrives as parents across Ghana report being charged amounts that exceed what struggling families can reasonably afford.
In a statement dated October 22, GES stated it had received reports of second cycle institutions demanding and collecting various levies without proper authorisation. The Service reminded school heads that no PTA or development fee could be charged without explicit approval from relevant education directorates. Even with approval, such payments must remain strictly voluntary, with no student denied services for nonpayment.
Social media outrage had been building for weeks. Kofi Asare, Executive Director of Africa Education Watch and a prominent education policy analyst, sparked widespread discussion when he alleged some senior high schools were charging parents as much as 600 cedis in PTA fees. His Facebook post questioned where GES stood while guidelines meant to protect parents were being systematically ignored.
The complaints strike at something deeper than just financial burden. They expose tensions within Ghana’s Free SHS programme, where government covers tuition and some basic costs, yet parents still find themselves facing substantial bills at admission. Some families reported being unable to secure their children’s placements without paying fees they hadn’t budgeted for and weren’t officially required to pay.
Daniel Fenyi, GES Head of Public Relations who signed the statement, emphasized that in basic schools, approval for such levies must come from the District Education Oversight Committee through the District Director of Education, while second cycle schools require authorisation from the Regional Director of Education. The procedural clarity matters because it establishes exactly who bears responsibility when unauthorised collections occur.
What makes this situation particularly problematic is how it undermines trust in the education system. Parents who thought Free SHS meant genuinely free education suddenly encounter demands for hundreds of cedis. School administrators, perhaps facing legitimate resource constraints, resort to collections that technically violate policy. Students caught in the middle sometimes miss opportunities because their families can’t immediately produce funds.
The Service specifically barred heads, teachers, and GES staff from directly collecting PTA dues, stating that fundraising remains the sole responsibility of PTA executives. This separation matters because it removes conflicts of interest and potential coercion that arise when school officials who control student services also handle fee collection.
The timing of the directive coincides with heightened scrutiny of PTA operations across Ghana’s education system. President John Dramani Mahama had called for full reinstatement of PTAs in June, arguing that sidelining parents from school governance undermined accountability and community involvement. That directive came after years of reforms following the Free SHS introduction in 2017, when PTAs were restructured into Parent Associations with stricter financial regulations.
Kofi Asare himself chairs the committee that developed new guidelines for regulating PTA activities, submitted to Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu in September. Those guidelines aim to prevent past excesses like extortion and fund misuse while empowering PTAs as genuine partners in education rather than just fundraising mechanisms. The framework positions PTAs beyond traditional fundraising roles into active decision making that affects teaching and learning outcomes.
Yet implementation appears messy. The gap between policy and practice reveals challenges in Ghana’s decentralised education management. Regional and district directors now carry responsibility for monitoring compliance and reporting breaches for disciplinary action. Whether they have resources and political backing to actually enforce these rules remains an open question.
Some perspective helps here. Ghana invested approximately 720 million cedis annually when Free SHS began, covering what had previously been internally generated revenues constituting 45 percent of total SHS costs. That substantial commitment didn’t eliminate all expenses schools face. Infrastructure maintenance, extracurricular activities, and various operational costs still exist. Schools feeling resource constrained might see PTA collections as necessary survival mechanisms rather than extortion.
But that doesn’t justify what parents describe experiencing. Being charged 600 cedis during admission, particularly without proper authorisation or transparency about how funds will be used, crosses lines that education officials themselves have drawn. When schools make such payments feel mandatory despite official voluntary status, they create exactly the kind of barriers Free SHS was meant to remove.
The statement from GES attempts to reassert control and protect vulnerable families. Its effectiveness depends on whether regional and district directors actually investigate complaints and impose consequences when schools violate guidelines. Past experience suggests enforcement often proves weaker than policy pronouncements.
Parents caught in this situation face difficult choices. Pay unauthorised fees to secure their children’s placements, or refuse and risk complications that could affect their child’s education? That’s not a choice families should have to make in a system claiming to provide free secondary education.
The broader context includes ongoing debates about education financing sustainability. Critics of Free SHS have long questioned whether government can maintain its commitments without compromising quality or creating fiscal pressures elsewhere. Supporters counter that universal secondary education represents an investment that pays long term dividends through human capital development.
Meanwhile, schools operate in real conditions with real constraints. If government funding doesn’t cover all legitimate operational needs, something has to give. Schools either reduce services, seek alternative funding, or decline in quality. PTAs originally emerged as community based solutions to exactly these resource gaps.
What’s needed isn’t just directive statements but honest conversations about education financing realities. If PTA contributions serve legitimate purposes, establish transparent, voluntary systems with proper oversight. If Free SHS should truly mean free, ensure government funding actually covers what schools need to function effectively. The current situation where policy says one thing while practice demands another serves nobody well.
Regional and district education directors now carry the burden of making GES directives meaningful. They must investigate complaints, verify whether schools charged unauthorised fees, and take disciplinary action when violations occurred. That requires political courage, especially when respected school heads might argue they only collected funds necessary for school operations.
For parents navigating admissions right now, the GES statement offers some protection. Schools cannot legally demand PTA fees without proper authorisation. Payments, even when approved, remain voluntary. No student should be denied services for nonpayment. Parents facing pressure to pay should know they have grounds to complain and expect investigations.
The test of this directive comes in its enforcement. Will schools actually stop unauthorised collections? Will education officials investigate complaints and impose consequences? Or will this become another policy statement that looks good on paper but changes little in practice?
Africa Education Watch and advocates like Kofi Asare deserve credit for forcing this issue into public view. Social media outrage, while sometimes excessive, can spotlight problems that might otherwise be quietly tolerated. Education policy needs both expert analysis and grassroots pressure to drive meaningful reform.
Ghana’s education journey continues navigating tensions between ambitious policies and implementation realities. Free SHS represents a bold commitment that transformed access to secondary education. But access means more than admission letters. It means families can actually afford to send their children to school without facing extortion disguised as voluntary contributions.
The coming weeks will reveal whether GES directives translate into changed practices or just create more paperwork. Parents will know the answer based on what they’re told when they show up for admissions. Schools will know based on whether their unauthorised collections trigger actual consequences. And students will know based on whether financial barriers keep standing between them and the education Ghana promises.
Source: newsghana.com.gh
