The attention of the Management of Golden Sunbeam International College of Science and Technology has been drawn to an unfortunate and deliberate attempt by the Head of the National School Inspectorate Authority, to discredit the impeccable reputation of the school regarding its accreditation to run the Cambridge program in Ghana.
In the interest of fairness to public discourse and to also assure our cherished Parents and Students Golden Sunbeam will want to register our protest in no uncertain terms and set the records straight.
We will not allow our 32-year hard-earned and impeccable record to be dragged in the mud Golden Sunbeam is a Member of the Partner Schools Global Network of the British Council accredited to run the Cambridge Assessment International Education in Ghana with registration number 027. since 2007
For the avoidance of doubt, NaSIA does NOT issue International License for international programs on behalf of the Cambridge Assessment Center or the British Council.
NASIA is a regulator of all pre-tertiary schools both public and private which originally was done by the GES Golden Sunbeam has run the Cambridge Assessment program since 2007; graduating several students over the years without any problem whatsoever with either the Ministry of Education the GES or our International Partners.
The real bone of contention between NaSIA and the International schools, is our disagreement on the arbitrary increase of license fees imposed on struggling Private Schools, at a time when COVID-19 has and still destroying national economies worldwide.
In 2020, when schools had been shut down and going through financial crises, NaSIA, without broad consultation with stakeholders, unilaterally imposed a new licensing fee from GHC 200 hitherto charged by the GES per department to GHC 2500 per department per annum amounting to over GHC 10000 per school, an astronomical increase of over 1150%.
This phenomenal increase was deemed by Members of (ASICS) the international private school association to be unfair, discriminatory and anti-business.
Subsequently the matter was brought to the attention of the Minister of Education by the Association who advised all the stakeholders to exercise restraint until a final resolution.
Consequently, NaSIA extended the payment of the license fees till December, 2021.
On October 14, 2021 while the matter is still pending with on-going negotiations, NaSIA, without any alert to Members unilaterally issues a damning reputational report on international schools offering Cambridge and IB programs and citing Golden Sunbeam and others in the publication which has gone viral, causing fear, panic and undue anxiety to parents, students and teachers alike.
This threat must be condemned by all stakeholders as acting in bad faith and is calculated to bring the name of the NPP government into disrepute in this era of hardship for the populace.
We, therefore, demand that NASIA retracts the publication and issue an unqualified apology to Golden Sunbeam and others because it is throwing dust in the eyes of the population causing confusion in the international curriculum educational front and promoting disaffection against both international schools and the NPP government.
It should be noted that the main source of revenue for schools is school fees and any overburdening charges and fees from regulators would trickle down and overburden parents.
We are aware of the funding needs of NaSIA but we think the approach being adopted by the current Head is unsustainable and could derail the efforts of Private Investors in our educational sector and create the unfortunate perception that the Government is against private international schools.
In March 2021 in spite of the disagreements, Golden Sunbeam went ahead and paid NaSIA an amount of GHC 10,500 for 4 departments pending the resolution of the case, out of goodwill and respect for the laws of Ghana.
It is therefore not right and unfair for NASIA to cite Golden Sunbeam as an example in her publication and thus ruining Golden Sunbeam’s hard-earned reputation.
We wish to urge the Minister of education to speedily resolve, as a matter of urgency, this licensing fee issue to bring finality to this matter and peace in the private international educational front so that we can continue our core business in peace.
As an International School with over 32 years of training and raising leaders for Africa and the World, we will like to assure all our cherished Parents, Students and teachers and the general public that Golden Sunbeam has always promoted and continues to promote quality education in Ghana and have won several awards both locally and internationally including BID international Gold awards for quality, innovation, technology in education and are ready to work with all our Regulatory Institutions to advance the strategic interest of all the stakeholders of education.
Source: Ghana Web
