The Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) has strongly criticised the Ghana Education Service over how some headteachers of Senior High Schools have been asked to step aside for charging unapproved fees from fresh students.
According to them, the seven headteachers in the Ashanti region in particular as of Monday morning had not received the letters asking them to step aside, as they only saw the letters circulating on social media.
Speaking to Citi News, Zakaria Suleman Yeboah, the Ashanti regional chairman of CHASS stated that the said headmasters were also not engaged on the matter before the release of the letters.
“None of them has received any letter to that effect, they heard the news on social media and they are seriously traumatised. As we speak, they are not themselves and I believe that it wasn’t the right thing to be done,” Mr Suleman Yeboah said.
Meanwhile, CHASS has expressed worry over the allegations levelled against the 11 Senior High School headmasters across the country.
The Conference, however, stressed that it will not condone acts of charging illegal fees by its members.
Speaking exclusively to Citi News at the Ashanti regional education office after accompanying seven interdicted headmasters to a meeting, the national CHASS president, Rev. Father Stephen Owusu Sekyere noted that their engagements with the headmasters have revealed that some of the allegations are true while according to the headmasters, some are untrue.
He further noted that the recent situation has brought about a considerable level of unrest, bitterness, fear and panic in various schools.
He is thus calling on the Ghana Education Service to tamper justice with mercy in cautioning the headmasters who would be found culpable after investigations.
Rev. Father Owusu Sekyere also called on the relevant stakeholders to conduct expeditious investigations into the matter to bring finality to the issue as early as possible.
CHASS has thus strongly cautioned headmasters across the country to strictly stick to the harmonized prospectus and avoid charging fees that have not been authorized.
The national president of CHASS Rev. Father Stephen Owusu Sekyere said this will prevent similar issues from happening.
