Academic work in the country's senior high schools (SHSs) is likely to be greatly hampered if government subsidies are not paid by the close of the month, the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) has warned. It said although the schools were in the third term, second term subsidies had not been released, a situation which had resulted in heads of schools struggling to cope with demands on their coffers. The President of CHASS, Mr. Samuel Ofori-Adjei, who made this known to the Daily Graphic yesterday, therefore, appealed to the government to intervene and release the funds on time in order to save the situation. “The delay is crippling the administration and academic work of 510 SHSs, with the worse affected being day schools which; in the absence of the subsidies, have to depend on the GH¢3.40 per student school fees,” he added. He said the timely release of the funds remained very important for the schools, particularly at a time final-year students were writing the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and utility bills were going up for boarding schools. According to Mr. Ofori-Adjei, who is also the Headmaster of Accra Academy, his school was two weeks ago thrown into total darkness because it could not pay its electricity bills. “We had to mobilise money from other sources to pay part of the bill to ensure that we were up and running,” he stated, adding that he had been receiving calls from heads of schools nationwide with similar experiences. The subsidies, GH¢17.95 per term per student for non-technical SHSs, GH¢21.45 for senior high/technical schools and GH¢21.95 for technical institutions, go into utilities, sanitation, furniture maintenance, general stationery, the maintenance of office equipment, first aid, building maintenance, sports, as well as culture. The others are postage and practical examinations. Mr. Ofori-Adjei said at the beginning of every term, the schools provided signed lists of enrolled students and with that the amount due each school was made available to it. He, however, stated that the way out of the current situation was for the Ministry of Education, the Ghana Education Service and CHASS to meet and work out modalities that would ensure that the subsidies rather went to support students who were really in need. That, he stated, would reduce pressure on the government purse because of the amount it would have to cough up every term. In his opinion, there were some parents who could easily pay the school fees and did not need subsidies. Source: Daily Graphic