2023 BECE: Education Minister’s take on Buduatta DA JHS headteacher’s saga

The Education Minister, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, has hinted at a probe into the alleged spending of registration fees by the headmaster of the Gomoa Buduatta DA Junior High School (JHS) in the Central region.

Dr Adutwum has said the report cannot be true.

Two students of the Gomoa Buduatta DA JHS were denied access to write their Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) on Monday because the headmaster, Richard Yao Ahanogbe, reportedly withheld their exam registration fees.

The development subsequently led to their exclusion from the ongoing examination due to a lack of index numbers, while the headmaster in question was nowhere to be found.

Reacting to the situation on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem, the Minister stated head teachers in public JHS are not supposed to charge registration fees for the exit exams since these costs are borne by the government.

Dr Adutwum noted that he, therefore, cannot fathom why the headteacher will decide to punish the candidates in this manner.

“This can never be true because BECE is free. There is no room for extortion because no public school has to pay money, so these parents have been extorted, but we will deal with the case.

“We will engage WAEC and GES will take over the case too because government pays WASSCE and BECE fees for public schools directly to WAEC. So we need to ask why the headmaster took the money and made the children go into this situation. The headmaster is in big trouble,” he said.