High school fees due to rising cost of educational materials – Mintaba

Some parents have been complaining about the increase in school fees for this academic term.

These parents who have their wards in private schools say the fees have doubled making it difficult for them to pay.

Reacting to the complaints of the parents on the JBS hosted by Naomi Afriyie Nyanor, Mr Charles Mintaba the Zonal Chairman for the Ghana National Association of Private Schools attributed the increase in the fees to the rising cost of educational materials.

According to him, unlike public schools which enjoy some subsidies on some materials, private schools do not have that luxury and it’s the publishers that dictate the prices for books and reading materials.

He said, “The rise in the dollar has affected everything, a book that was sold for GH20 last year is now being sold for GH60 this year and the price is not determined by the printing press but the publishers.”

“Most of the books are printed in India and it takes up to 3 months before you received the printed books, but 3 months ago, the dollar rate was very high and they paid according to that rate, the reason for the high cost of learning materials this term.”

He also added that school fees in some public schools are high because some of the schools add the cost of uniforms and Friday wear to the bill which should not be so.

He assured parents that these issues will not occur in the second term and was happy that some of the schools had even instituted a payment plan to help parents deal with the situation.