Stop charging exam fees in public basic schools now – Eduwatch to gov’t

Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch) has strongly criticized the growing trend of examination and printing fees being charged to parents of pupils in public basic schools across Ghana.

This comes as term assessments are set to begin on Monday, April 7, 2025, with some school heads allegedly threatening to bar pupils from exams if their parents fail to pay the imposed fees.

In a statement released on April 5, 2025, Eduwatch acknowledged the value of voluntary parental contributions to educational development but insisted that such payments must not be mandatory or a condition for a child’s participation in school activities.

“Basic education shall be free, compulsory, and universal,” Eduwatch emphasized, citing Section 2(b) of the Pre-Tertiary Education Act, 2020 (Act 1049), which mandates that no child should be excluded from education due to financial barriers.

The think tank stressed that excluding pupils from exams due to unpaid fees violates both legal provisions and the principles of equity in education, particularly under Ghana’s Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (fCUBE) policy.

Eduwatch pointed fingers at the Ministry of Education, stating that it is the government’s duty to provide timely funding for school-based assessments. While it acknowledged the recurring delay in disbursing such funds over the years, it warned that shifting the financial burden to parents is not a sustainable solution.

“We call on the Minister for Education to ensure basic schools are timeously funded to conduct their end-of-term examinations without any financial burden imposed on poor parents,” the statement read.

Eduwatch further urged the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES) to prohibit and penalize any school head who excludes a pupil from exams due to unpaid fees.

“The right to basic education is fundamental and unconditional. Its direct funding must remain a non-negotiable obligation of the state,” Eduwatch concluded.

The education policy think tank reiterated its commitment to equity in education and called on authorities to act swiftly to protect the rights of vulnerable pupils and uphold the country’s free education mandate.

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