The National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) has charged the Ghana Education Service (GES) to immediately render accounts on monies it has collected from Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates who accessed their results and Senior High School (SHS) placements online over the last four years.
According to NUGS, BECE candidates have been paying extra money to the GES in order to access their results and SHS placements, stressing “it is illicit, it is corrupt and an affront to the core principles underpinning our educational development drives as a nation.”
Addressing a gathering of students in Kumasi after swearing an oath to take office, the newly-elected NUGS President, Sammy Dakwa Binfoh, appealed to the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament to ensure that GES rendered proper account of the monies it has collected from the BECE candidates.
“The Constitution of Ghana guarantees that a right to education should be progressively free; [however] our education system is still plagued with various forms of inconvenient costs and exploitations.”
Still bemoaning the huge amount of monies that BECE candidates paid to the GES, he said, “It is estimated about three hundred and ninety thousand pupils sat for the recent BECE. On average, each pupil spent about GH¢10 from checking of results and placement to printing of placement sheets. With this, the GES/WAEC and its affiliates make over GH¢3,900,000.”
Dakwa Binfo who is an MBA student at the KNUST lamented that the development was unlawful and inhumane, and therefore tasked the GES to make the public know what they have so far used those monies for.
The newly-elected NUGS president and other executives, on Sunday, swore an oath to lead the student body. The event was attended by former NUGS executives including the immediate past President, Andrews Kofi Gyan.
Dakwa Binfo called on “members of NUGS, in particular leadership, to wake up to the dawn of reality that the spirit of all Ghanaian students; now and in the near future, lies in our actions today.”
He said his administration would relentlessly pursue pragmatic policies, take critical decisions and operate on the wheels on unity of purpose, dedication and accountability to espouse the dictates “of our core mandate as a union.”
Elijah Adansi Bonah, chief justice of NUGS, led the newly-elected NUGS executives to swear the oath of office before a large gathering which included SRS and local NUGS presidents of the various tertiary institutions.
Former NUGS President, Andrews Kofi Gyan, after handing over power to his successor bemoaned that backbiting and rancour had been the bane of the union over the years, calling for a change of attitude among students and NUGS members to develop NUGS.
The Chairman for the colourful event, Tony Adade-Yeboah, senior lecturer and dean of students, Christian Service University College (CSUC) cautioned the NUGS executives not to avail themselves to be used by politicians for selfish interests.
He said NUGS members are the future leaders of the state and tasked the newly-elected executives to work harder than ever to champion maters bothering on students’ interests. He cautioned them saying, “Don’t let anything divert your attention.”
Mr. Adade-Yeboah charged the losers and winners of the recently held NUGS polls to bury their differences and unite as one people to help move NUGS forward.
Source Daily Guide Ghana News
NUGS demands GES accountability….over GES accountability
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