Ghana’s boarding school systems can be tough and most times you will be living on the financial edge. For some reason, pocket money given at the beginning of the term runs out in no time and asking for more will problematic. You are not necessarily using the money for anything bad; just food and the occasional personal thing you can’t ask your parents for directly. These 10 excuses will help you solicit money from your parents.
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10 easy ways to get money from your parents if you are in boarding school
Pulse writer Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu gives you tips on how to make extra money from your parents if you are in school.
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These tips will not work if you have parents that will ask for receipts and are overly suspicious. Having a history of lying about similar things will not help either.
1. Faking sickness
Get a friend to call your parents to tell them you are sick and need some money transferred to you for drugs that the school’s infirmary lacks. Parents will almost always jump on this because they want to make sure their little ones are safe. However, you need to be careful what you wish for.
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2. Required textbooks
The main reason why you have been sent to school is to learn. Occasionally, new books are introduced and you may well be required to get them to aid you in learning. Try this line: one of your teachers has written a book and it is mandatory for everyone to have it or else you will be kicked out of class. You were even kicked out the previous day because you didn’t buy the book.
3. Stolen cash
Stealing in boarding school is infamous and it will be very surprising to find someone whose money has not found a new owner. This works very well especially if you are in first year. Parents know this and so they will usually believe this except that they would give you the age-old ‘money doesn’t grow on trees’ talk and as such you need to look after your money well. But the money will be transferred in no time.
4. Private tuition
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You have noticed that students taking extra classes on campus with one of your teachers perform very well in tests and exams. That is because he takes his time to teach and explain the topics better than he did in class and because of the small size (unlike the large class size of regular school) the tuition is a lot more personal and effective. This will work for ‘difficult’ subjects such as mathematics, physics or chemistry and not for courses such as social studies.
5. A school trip or excursion
Your class is organising a field trip to see first hand what was seen in books. This would usually work for those studying geography. However, you may need to provide photo evidence when you go back home. So the advice is; go on the trip except that the amount that was paid has been slightly inflated.
6. Practical work
Parents will generally warm up to anything linked to education. This usually works for those studying general science, agric or visual arts where practical work is commonplace.
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7. Strange dues
Schools are notorious for coming up with strange dues so this will work on parents. Join them when they begin to complain about how the school is using these dues to extract money unduly. If your parents are litigants, don’t try this.
8. Exams registration
Unless you are in final year, this will not work. The WASSCE requires you to register in order to sit the exams which qualifies you for admission into university. So you need money for that and some passport photos to attach. The only way around this is to slightly increase the amount; so you pay the original fee and then keep the excess.
9. Stolen food
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This will fly usually weeks before vacation. Educate your parents about ‘Hala week’ ; (the period when most people will have emptied their boxes) and so some students have resorted to stealing food. It works for must-have boarding school foods such as ‘shito’ and ‘gari’.
10. Stolen personal effects
Your bucket; towel, sponge, toothbrush has been stolen. You certainly can’t use someone else’s so this is a sure bet. Be prepared for a talk about how careless you have been.
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