Low budget schools are options if our fees are too high – Private school owners to parents

As parents frown and mull over the increase in fees of private schools, the Conference of Directors of Private Pre-Tertiary Schools (CODPPTS) says parents have no business in fee fixing.

According to the group, just as hotels and all private business entities in Ghana could review their fees without consulting customers or clients, private school owners have the same prerogative.

Social media has been awash with pictures of fees being demanded by private schools ahead of reopening of schools nine months after they were shut down.

While some condemned the new fees, describing it as extortion, others say it was meant for the schools to recoup what they lost in the last nine months. Those who agree with the schools urged parents to send their wards to schools they could afford.

The President of CODPPTS, Philip Boateng Mensah, agreed with the latter as he urged parents to stop complaining about the increase in fees and take their wards to schools within their budget.

“Parents have unfettered access to all schools in Ghana including government schools, which are almost free, so it is needless to decide to stay in a particular school when your budget can not keep you there.

“Private Schools have levels. The maintenance, running expenses, and quality of teachers and other services differ from one school to another. If you want a five-star school, you should be ready to pay for five-star service,” part of the release read.

Some parents and other stakeholders have prevailed on the private school owners to reduce admission and fees as schools reopen across the country in line with a directive from President Akufo-Addo.

In making their case, the parents cited the effect of Covid-19 and its impact on businesses.

But arguing its case, the private school owners said the  school owners were left without support from parents or government during the outbreak of the pandemic, hence the decision to adjust fees upwards to adequately handle the safety protocols outlined by the Ghana Health Service was in order.

“Covid19 has been an eye-opener for entrepreneurs in the private education sector because, when schools were closed down for almost a year, no Parent nor Government exhibited any concern about how Private School Teachers or Proprietors fared in order to provide a lifeline
for survival.

“The online studies, which were organized by schools did not witness any serious participation from most parents who are supposed to be our major stakeholders.

“In most cases, even where school fees were halved, most parents did not pay for their wards to be enrolled for the virtual classes, as means to support the Private School Teacher and for school maintenance.

In view of this, the Association said: “it is important to seize this opportunity to educate all parents, who have wards in Private Schools that, in as much as we recognize they are major stakeholders, their stakeholding right has a limit and does not extend to price-fixing, which is the responsibility of the school owners.”

Therefore “Parents can negotiate for a reduction or flexible terms of payment from Private School Owners. However, Private School Owners are not under any compulsion to go by the wishes of parents.”

Although Ghana’s Free Compulsory and Universal Basic Educational (FCUBE) requires all children to be in school, its implementation appears to be perpetuating an ‘educational apartheid’ where the rich find quality in private schools, leaving the poor in low-cost private schools and poorly funded public schools which are bedevilled with so many challenges.

Though access to basic education has significantly shot up due to government interventions including the Capitation Grant, School Feeding Programme and infrastructure projects, it is not having the desired impact on quality. 

Parents who do not trust the quality of education at the basic level are turning to private schools which tend to be expensive, as well as low-cost ones, which tend to be cheaper but the quality of education cannot be vouched for.