Submit Free SHS Returns by Friday Or Be Sanctioned – GES to Heads

The Ghana Education Service (GES), says it will sanction Heads of Senior High Schools who fail to submit returns on the funds released to their schools under the Free SHS programme by Friday.

The submission of the returns is to ensure the disbursement of additional funds for the feeding and the general upkeep of students in the various schools.

According to the GES, only 117 Headteachers have filed their returns out of the over 500 schools which received funds in November 2017.

Speaking to Citi News, the Public Relations Officer of the GES, Cassandra Twum-Ampofo, said that the Service intends to crack down on the Heads who fail to submit their returns by the end of the week.

She added that the GES will sanction any headteacher who fails to heed the directive as any further delays in the submission of the returns would prevent the timely disbursement of funds to those schools, ultimately affecting the students negatively.

“If you do not submit the returns by Friday then I’m afraid you are telling us that you don’t want to obey simple instructions and we would have to also go through the necessary administrative processes and find out why. There are sanctions though, a number of them, but it’s not limited to moving a headmaster or headmistress,” she said.

“We do not want the negligence of any heads to affect the students, so we have given them up to 5:00pm on Friday to submit their returns. If you do not submit the returns, then you are telling us that you are ready to face any sanctions thereof. We’ll not take it lightly at all” she noted.

‘Crackdown on Heads’

Since the introduction of the Free SHS policy, a number of headteachers have been sanctioned for various acts which were seen to be contrary to the directives of the policy.

Two head teachers were transferred in September 2017 for allegedly charging illegal fees under the free SHS programme.

The headteacher of La PRESEC, Samuel Salamat was one of those transferred after similar claims were made against him.

Observers have described the strict enforcement of the policy’s modalities as an attempt by the government to ensure that the programme does not face any challenges which could derail its implementation.

Source: Citifmonline