Two former students of Association International School (AIS) filed a complaint with the Human Rights Division of the High Court in Accra about the institution's decision to withhold their transcripts unless they paid their due tuition.
The court, presided over by Justice Barbara Tetteh-Charway, ruled that when the school delayed the students' transcripts due to the arrears, it did not violate their right to an education.
Although the 1992 Constitution guaranteed everyone access to an education, the court determined that private schools like AIS, which offered the International Baccalaureate (IB) programmes and a variety of chances to its pupils, needed the comparatively higher tuition to stay in operation.
Therefore, parents who decide to enrol their children in such elite educational institutions with the goal of easing the transfer into foreign tertiary institutions where they may continue their studies must be ready to pay the necessary fees for the services provided.
"This is because the relatively high fees paid by students in such schools enable the school to pay its teachers and provide the kind of atmosphere and experience that students in some public schools can hardly imagine," Justice Tetteh-Charway stated.
Sewenam Avle and Selikem Avle claimed in the lawsuit they filed through their mother, Nana Akua Hayford Avle, in January of this year to support their right to an education that after paying GH100,000 out of GH141,560 in school fees, when they When they were prepared to pay the remaining amount, the school notified them that due to the depreciation of the Ghana cedi at the time of paying the second instalment, the balance of GH41,560, which was equal to $8,593 at the time of the first payment, had risen to GH111,709.
They said that the AIS told them to stay at home since they couldn't pay the remaining costs, as the school had informed them, after they and the school argued on the amount owing.
Because of the argument, the mother of the kids looked for a different school for them and required their transcripts for entrance.
The students claimed in their arguments in favour of the lawsuit that AIS denied their request for the transcripts.
Transcripts for the academic years for which they fully paid their tuition should be made available.
The two students asked the court to declare that the school's reluctance to reveal their transcripts violated their fundamental human rights as part of their requests for remedy.
In addition, they requested a "declaration that there is no lawful basis for AIS to interfere with the applicants' right to education based on fees owed the school" and that the court force AIS to reveal their transcripts and scores.
Defence
Samuel Narh, AIS's attorney, argued in defence of his client that the private liability firm had no constitutional duty to give students a way to exercise their right to an education unless the applicants were able to show satisfy the requirements set forth by the parties with relation to the payment of fees.
According to the school's rules, "once a student leaves the school with outstanding school fees, the student and his or her access to the platform is blocked until payment of the school fees in full," the school noted.
It stated that the school could not be forced to give the students' transcripts until they paid all outstanding debts to the institution, particularly if they had voluntarily ended their contract of enrolment.
Justice Tetteh-Charway observed in her ruling that just because two students had already paid their tuition in full did not give them the right to refuse to pay the arrears.
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