Some members of the public who witnessed the public hearings of Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on the Report of the Auditor-General on pre-university educational institutions have called on the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) to discontinue the posting of WASSCE results online.

Their call is predicated on the fact that some Senior High School (SHS) students knowing that they can easily access their results online complete their courses leaving behind huge sums of unpaid schools fees.

Among the findings of the Auditor-General is the revelation that school fees arrears nationwide on the part of students amount to 940, 000 Ghana cedis.

The Report observes, "Fee collection from students and debt recovery including staff advances continued to remain a problem in some institutions resulting in a debt of 1.53 million Ghana cedis as at 31December, 2004. This included student debt of 940, 000 cedis as against 860,000 Ghana cedis for the previous year with students who had left the institutions some years ago contributing to the state of affairs".

When a member of the Salas Mensah-led PAC asked why the head teachers of the secondary schools who appeared before PAC have not authorized WAEC to withhold the results of the errant students, their response was that although they have done that, WAEC says it would be a herculean task to accede to that request.

The report gives a regional breakdown as follows: Central Region-student indebtedness increased to 106, 000 Ghana cedis in 2004 from 83,810 Ghana cedis in 2003.

In the Volta Region, debts owed by students, staff and others to schools increased from 285,000 Ghana cedis in 2003 to 361,000 Ghana cedis in 2004.

In Greater Accra Region, students and staff were indebted to the schools to the tune of 59,230 Ghana cedis, as at 31 December 2002.

In Western Region, debt owed by students and staff stood at 107, 000 Ghana cedis as 31 December 2004.

In the Upper East Region, debts owed by students, staff and other institutions to schools stood at 162,000 Ghana cedis as at 31 December 2002.

Others are, Ashanti Region 3.87 billion cedis and Brong Ahafo 1,142 million Ghana cedis.

Accordingly, the Auditor-General had this advice for the heads of the institutions," Heads of Institutions are urged to show determined commitment towards debt recovery to alleviate the general financial difficulties of the institutions."

"The Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service should, to this end, explore and issue policy initiatives to guide institutions in their fee collection and debt recovery effort."

The Auditor-General also unearthed the loss of a large number of textbooks and library books. The report said at an estimated average price of 50,000 cedis per textbook, institutions were deemed to have lost more than 20,000 million cedis in respect of 4013 stolen or unreturned library and text books by both students and staff of some institutions, who have in some instances, long left the institutions.

The Auditor-General blames the situation mainly on the lax application of library regulations and ineffective system of monitoring of text and library books given to students.

"The Ministry of Education should introduce a system of clearance of students' and staff from any liability before their separation from the institutions, as a measure against the loss of text and library books," the Auditor-General recommended.