By Foday Moriba Conteh
Indicated in a Press Release issued on the 24th September 2021 was that the Ministry of Finance has withheld payments to 53 Senior Secondary Schools nationwide pending investigations by the Ministry of Basic and Senior School Education (MBSSE) and the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
It was learnt that the withholding of these tuition fees disbursement is related to an allegation of overstating the number of candidates for payment of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) fees made to WAEC for the ongoing examination.
In a news conference recently in Freetown, the Minister of Basic and Senior School Education Dr. David Moinina Sengeh said that the Ministry noticed some discrepancies with regards to the number of pupils sent by certain schools as their candidates to benefit from the Government’s payment for WASSCE.
“Some of these schools have about 70 pupils in SSS 1, about 70 as well for SSS 2, and eventually send over 200 pupils to take the WASSCE in SSS 3. So the ACC and the Ministry are investigating to know how these figures are rising astronomically,” he said.
The Ministry of Finance (MoF) in collaboration with the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) have stated that, as part of their commitment to financing the Free Quality Education, Government has made a total payment of Le52,540,460,000.00 as tuition fees for pupils in Pre-Primary, Primary, Junior and Senior Secondary Schools in Government and Government-Assisted Schools for the first term of 2021/2022 school year.
Those payments were made directly into the bank accounts of beneficiary schools based on the approved school list and enrolment data submitted by the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education to the Ministry of Finance.
It is worthy of note that the Government has also paid Le462 million to 15 Special Needs Schools across the country for Quarter 3 of 2021, while the payment process for Quarter 4 of a similar amount is in progress.
