GES SHS Prospectus 2026: Parents to spend over GH¢3,500; see breakdown

Josephine Amuzu 17:28 - 05 September 2026

The 2026/2027 GES SHS prospectus requires items ranging from bedding to academic materials. Here is a breakdown of costs and what parents need to budget.

The 2026/2027 GES SHS prospectus requires parents to provide items ranging from bedding and clothing to toiletries, footwear and academic materials.
Based on current online prices, parents may need several thousand cedis, with basic boarding essentials alone costing around GH¢2,500 or more.
Beyond the GES-listed items, parents will also have to budget for food provisions and other supplies their children may need during the school term.

Parents preparing their wards for Senior High School (SHS) may have to set aside thousands of cedis to buy the items listed in the Ghana Education Service’s (GES) 2026/2027 National Harmonised Prospectus.

The prospectus, released on September 3, 2026, outlines the items expected of boarding and day students, covering clothing, bedding, toiletries, footwear, academic materials and other personal effects.

For boarding students, the list is particularly extensive and includes everything from a trunk or chop box and mattress to underwear, toiletries, a school bag, scientific calculator and mosquito net.

A check of prices on Ghanaian online retailers, including Chopbox and Jumia, gives an indication of what parents could spend.

One of the clearest benchmarks is Chopbox’s Pack to School – Boarding House Essentials, which is currently listed at GH¢2,500, reduced from GH¢2,880.

The package covers many of the everyday boarding essentials, but it should not be treated as the full cost of the GES prospectus.

Prices from Chopbox were used to estimate the cost of individual prospectus items, while its GH¢2,500 boarding-house essentials package provides a useful benchmark for parent.

Parents will still need to account for school-specific clothing, footwear, academic materials and other items that may not be included.

How much could individual items cost?

Below is an indicative price guide based on current online listings. Prices are not official GES prices and may change.

GES item	Indicative price
Hard-body suitcase/trunk/chop box	GH¢220 – GH¢500+
Drinking cup	About GH¢15
Plastic/stainless-steel plate	About GH¢11 – GH¢24
Cutlery set	About GH¢19.50 – GH¢39
Toilet roll, 10-pack	GH¢38.99- GH¢50
Toothpaste	About GH¢9 – GH¢30
Sanitary pads	About GH¢19 – GH¢21 per pack
Plastic bucket with cover	About GH¢49
Pillow	About GH¢66.50
Bedsheet	About GH¢50 – GH¢114 each
Blanket	About GH¢48 - GH¢100
Sleeping cloth	About GH¢32
Mosquito net	About GH¢49
School bag	About GH¢85 and above
Scientific calculator	About GH¢29 – GH¢220
Pyjamas/sleepwear	About GH¢100
Socks	About GH¢7 per pair
Mattress	About GH¢495 – GH¢550

Sneakers	About GH¢96 – GH¢184+
School shoes/sandals	About GH¢108+
White shirt	About GH¢120
White trousers	About GH¢150
Khaki trousers	About GH¢120
Checked dress	About GH¢65 – GH¢87

These are price ranges that the items may cost. The exact cost will depend heavily on various vendors. Boys and girls will have slightly different costs.

The GES list has different underwear requirements for boys and girls. Girls are expected to have five pants and three vests, while boys require three boxer shorts or pants and three singlets. Girls are also required to provide two packs of sanitary pads.

As a result, the cost of preparing a girl may be slightly different from that of preparing a boy, depending on the brands and quantities purchased.

Using current online prices as a guide, a mattress alone could cost around GH¢500, while a pillow, bedsheets, blanket and mosquito net could add several hundred cedis. This means parents could easily spend more than GH¢700 on bedding alone, depending on the products they choose.

The prospectus requires students to buy items for their respective schools from one of three groups.

Group 1 includes:

One pair of hard hand gloves
Five litres of liquid soap
One kilogramme of washing powder.

Group 2 includes:

Small-size bleach
Dustpan
Long-handle broom
Scrubbing brush.

Group 3 includes:

Standing mop and mop bucket
Duster
Short local broom.

The prospectus indicates that students are to purchase items from one of the specified groups, rather than necessarily buying every item in all three groups.

How much should parents budget?

Based on the current online prices and the number of items on the GES list, GH¢2,500 should not be considered enough to fully prepare a boarding student.

It is, however, a useful starting point because Chopbox online already prices a 42-piece boarding-house essentials package at GH¢2,500. Once parents add items not covered by that package—including school-specific uniforms, footwear, underwear, academic materials and other requirements—the total can rise substantially.

A reasonable planning figure could therefore be:

Basic boarding essentials: about GH¢2,500–GH¢3,000
More complete preparation: about GH¢3,500–GH¢4,500
Higher-end preparation: GH¢5,000 or more

These are budget estimates rather than official figures from GES. The actual amount will depend on the school, brands selected, where the items are purchased and which items the family already has.

Parents who already have items such as suitcases, bedding, buckets or toiletries at home may spend considerably less.

Buying everything at once may not be necessary. With the cost of preparing a child for SHS potentially running into several thousand cedis, parents may want to avoid buying everything simply because it appears on a general list.

GES has also instructed that personal items should be embossed or embroidered with the student's name, so parents should factor in the cost of labelling belongings.

The new GES prospectus gives parents a standard checklist, but the financial burden of preparing a boarding student will vary from one family to another and also day students.

Parents should realistically expect to spend several thousand cedis once clothing, footwear, bedding, academic materials and school-specific requirements are added.

But the GES prospectus is only part of the cost. Beyond the items on the official list, parents will also have to consider the provisions and food supplies they send with their children for the term.

While these may not be part of the mandatory GES list, they are another expense many families will have to factor into their back-to-school budget.

So, for parents preparing a child for SHS, the actual cost of getting them ready could go well beyond the amount spent on the GES prospectus items alone.