The offer which is being made by NBSSI is “less than one percent of the amount”- Private Schools

The Ghana National Council of Private School(GNACOPS) has noted that only a handful of the Council’s members have received offer letters from the National Board for Small Scale Industry (NBSSI).

A research director at the council Mr. Moses Braimah noted that the NBSSI has decided to give the schools that applied for the stimulus less than one per cent of what they requested.

Speaking at a press conference, he tagged the disposition of the Board as “disrespectful”.

 “A handful of our members have received offer letters from the NBSSI and it is disheartening to know that the offer, which is being made, is less than one percent of the amount they applied for. This, for want of a better word, is disrespectful. How can this be called support?”

“What we mean is that, after we had submitted our applications and have gone through the processes, we went to the NSSBI to find out that we are only receiving 1% of the stated amount”.

The mother body of private schools in the country is therefore appealing to the President to intervene before private schools collapse as some of them are already beginning to fold up.

He further called on the Education Ministry to support the private schools in this cause.

Earlier in September, the Executive Director of the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), Kosi Yankey-Ayeh revealed approval had been given for the disbursement of stimulus packages to over 1,000 private schools in Ghana to support them in the wake of the Coronavirus (Covid-19).

However, she said, not all the schools had as at the time received their packages.

Speaking in an interview, she noted that there were prevailing issues with the bank accounts of the others that are yet to receive theirs.

Mrs. Kosi Ayeh stated that the problems were being addressed by the schools to expedite the process of receiving their package, further indicating that government had budgeted GH50million for the cause.

 “In thinking about the pain of the private teachers or the people that work for them and the challenges they are going through at this time, government then thought it wise to commit about 50 million cedis of funds to support the schools and to also support the private teachers, so I think it is very commendable. We are doing all that we can to ensure that we get to them”.

Private schools petitioned the government to support deal with the ravages of the Coronavirus pandemic.

In a petition to President Akufo-Addo, the Educational consultancy, Neogenics Education Group revealed that “80% of private school proprietors are unable to meet basic salaries of teachers and office staff (over 400,000)”.

The petition further indicated that parents are unwilling to pay outstanding fees from the previous term in 67% of private schools as 85% of these institutions acquire virtual learning platforms and resources to continue educating children through distance learning.