Schools accumlates huge bank balances (Friday,October12, 2012 Back Page)

Story: Benjamin Xornam Glover, Bolgatanga An assessment of the Capitation Grant in Ghana has noted that in spite of challenges identified in the provision of schools infrastructure, some schools have accumulated huge bank balances in their Capitation grants account. The study said with these huge balances in the various accounts, one can only conclude that these schools are not using the grant to improve quality of education as stipulated in the guidelines. This was contained in the latest assessment report carried out by SEND-GHANA. It assessed the extent to which guidelines set out by the Ghana Education Service to ensure transparency and equity in the distribution and utilization of the Capitation Grant are being followed in the Greater Accra, Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions. The study said deprived schools such as Holy Angels Primary in Garu-Tempane, Nangodi Primary in the then Talensi-Nabdam District, Lungni D/A Primary in Nanumba South, Gengande Primary School in Bawku West and St. Anne’s Primary in West Gonja districts had balances of GH c 4,064.95, GH c 2,562.41, GH c 5,173.00, GH c 6,000 and GH c 2,139 respectively in their bank account as at the end of 2008 / 2009 academic year. “For instance, St. Anne’s Primary decided to accumulate the grant in preparation of the celebration of their 50th anniversary” the report said. It said interestingly, some district offices of GES were aware of the situation and cited reasons such as absence of School Management Committees, fear of prosecution, delay in the release of the grant and inability to prepare School Performance Improvement Plan as the main reasons accounting for the situation. “This is quite worrying given the fact that, these schools lack basic infrastructure such as desk, toilets and urinal facilities, which could have been provided with the grant”, the report said The study noted that it is expected that with the capitation grant, schools should have their own toilets facilities but the assessment revealed that about 29.9 per cent of schools with the majority of schools in the Upper East Region having no toilet facilities. The government of Ghana in a bid to improve access to education introduced the Capitation Grant and abolished all forms of school fees in public basic schools. The grant covers cost and levies such as examination fees, registration, facilities management, games and sports which were hitherto paid by parents and guardians as school fees in public schools. Currently, government pays GHC 4.50 per pupil per annum and the amount of grant received by a school is determined by the number of pupils. -End-