Parents Need At Least ₵400 For Day Students Prospectus- Education Minister

The Minister for Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum has posited that the cost involved in getting the prospectus has drastically reduced to enable the underprivileged access to the second cycle institutions following the introduction of the harmonized prospectus.

According to him, with at least GHC400, day students will be able to get all the needed prospectus to report to school for the academic year.

He explained that the idea for a harmonized prospectus was birthed after it was realized that the cost of the prospectus was unfavourable to the underprivileged and stained the concept of the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy.

“We realized the huge cost involved in getting the prospectus despite the Free SHS. It was a headache for parents. Some spent about GHC5,000 to get the individual items. It was hampering the objective of the Free SHS so we developed what we called harmonized prospectus. This means all schools would take the same items and we took a lot of items out of the list,” he said while addressing the Ashanti Regional House of Chiefs on December 13, 2023.

Unlike in the past where all students would present all items on the prospectus list, “divide and share” has been deployed in the new strategy, he said.

“We realized that the school wouldn’t require a broom from each of their 1,500 students so we divided the items into three and shared among the students. So a student who brought a broom, wouldn’t buy a brush. Attached to their results were the national prospectus with indicated ones the student must get.”

He told the House that violation by some head teachers had landed them into trouble with the Ministry.

“We asked you to cut the items to afford everyone the chance to come to school you said no. Otumfuo, our job isn’t easy,” he said humourously.