Top 5 Demands of Ghana’s Private Schools for Political Parties Manifestos

The Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS) has made public the Top 5 Demands of Ghana’s Private Schools for Political Parties, ahead of the 2024 general elections scheduled for December 7th, 2024.

According to the association, its member schools, teachers, and parents will give their full support and rally behind any political party that includes their demands in its 2024 election manifesto.

At the launch, the association stated that their manifesto “is a catalogue of the challenges that need to be fixed in order to promote private sector participation in education.”

The demands put forth will serve as a challenge for all political parties, especially the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Reading the speech at the launch, the association further stated that they will only vote for a political party that pledges its commitment to addressing the issues they have outlined in their own demands.

“But let me emphasise that GNAPS will campaign and vote for the political party that pledges to address the myriad of challenges that are suffocating private schools in Ghana today. Private schools are at a crossroads. “Their survival depends on the types of policies that the government rolls out in education.” Part of the speech was read.

Demands of Ghana’s Private Schools for Political Parties Manifestos

The association has therefore itemized its Top 5 Demands of Ghana’s Private Schools for Political Parties Manifestos. This was made public at the MEDIA LAUNCH OF THE PRE-TERTIARY PRIVATE SCHOOLS MANIFESTO at the GNAT HALL in ACCRA on 29th APRIL, 2024.

GNAPS, a Partner of Political Parties, Your Excellencies, this election year, GNAPS is a ripe spinster eager to be laid, waiting for a political party to put a wedding ring on the Association’s
finger. Marriage to a political party is our survival instinct. That’s why we’re out there wooing political parties. And because we are eager to marry, our list of dowry items is not long” a part of the speech stated.

The demands are as follows:

i. Scrap the 30% Priority Placement System.

ii. Just as it does for public school candidates, Government must absorb the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and the West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) registration fees paid by private school candidates

iii. Extend the Free Senior High School (SHS) programme to private school students.

iv. Review the Education Regulatory Bodies Act 2020 Act 1023 to do away with exorbitant regulatory charges by the National Schools.

Inspectorate Authority (NaSIA), National Teaching Council (NTC), and National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA).

v. Recognize Low Fee Private Schools (LFPS) as social interventions aimed at educating children in deprived communities, and support them as such.

vi. Abolish nuisance taxes that are hiking the cost of doing business, and review property rates and business operating permits charged by the assemblies.

vii  Above all, fix the country’s economy to create a conducive business environment for the operation of private schools.

According to the leadership of association “If these concerns of private schools find expression in any political party’s manifesto, pre-tertiary private schools will propose marriage to that party.”

READ:2024 BECE Timetable for Private Candidates Out

The leadership of the Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS) hopes the political parties will give them a listening year as they seek votes to win the all important 2024 general election.