The Private Schools Association of Ghana (PSAG),has welcomed the decision of the Ministry of Education, to make the renewal of licences for established schools once every three years.
This, according to the group would enable various school have ample time to ensure they met all the approved standards required by the sector ministry.
The head of the Bono Region Chapter of the association, MrPeprahYeboah,was reacting to the news of the development in a telephone interview with the Ghanaian Times yesterday.
He stated that such moves proved thatthe government was indeed poised to create an enabling environment for private schools to operate without fear or intimidation.
The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw OseiAduTwumannounced last week that the renewal of licences for all established schools would now be done every three years, instead of the usual annual process to give schools ample time to prepare adequately for the procedure.
He said the yearly licensing “puts schools on the edge that this year they are licenced, next year they may not be licenced and so what we have directed as a ministry is that the licensing regime should be three years. In that way we are separating licensing from the mere payment offees that are due to National Schools Inspectorate Authority (NaSIA).”
According Mr PeprahYeboah, the announcement came as good news to his outfit, adding that members of the association would continue to appreciate effort by the government to ease pressure on them.
However, he appealed to the National Schools Inspectorate Authority (NaSIA) to consider schools with low number of pupils when charging the necessary fees required of all private schools in the country.
He mentioned that there were many private schools struggling to maintain their schools, especially during the fight against the pandemic, adding that charging all schools the same amount of monies was not fair.
“How can schools in rural areas and school with populations as low as 60 pay same processing or licensing fees as schools with more than a population of 700. Some private schools in the country even charge fees in dollars so this is my humble appeal, let us pay all charges according to the number of pupils or students we have,” he added.
BY RAISSA SAMBOU
