A Senior Research Fellow at the Legon Centre for International Affairs, Dr Vladimir Antwi-Danso, has called on the government to abolish the seal placed on parent-teacher associations’ (PTA’s) ability to contribute meaningfully to the development of their children’s schools.
He said such a move by the government would encourage more parents to cultivate the self-help spirit to contribute generously towards the development of basic and senior high schools in the country.
That, he noted, would go a long way to complement the government’s commitment to provide the needed resources and infrastructure in the educational sector to improve teaching and learning.
“The time has come for the government-must syndrome and regulations of schools to give way to parents who have the ability to support their children’s schools to do so as part of their contribution to improving the standard of education in the country,” Dr Antwi-Danso stated.
Speaking at a PTA meeting of the Aburi Girls’ Senior High School on Saturday, Dr Antwi-Danso said “the government must encourage a self-help spirit among PTAs instead of killing it”.
The event, which was used to discuss some of the challenges confronting the academic progress of the school, was also used to inaugurate a water sachet producing plant funded by the PTA of the school.
The plant, which is connected to a borehole and several water tanks, is expected to solve the acute water shortage facing the teachers and students of the school who often have to walk a long distance to fetch unclean water from a valley near the school.
The initiative, first among SHSs in the country, is also expected to address the drudgery parents and guardians often go through in carrying barrels and bags of sachet water to their children in the school.
The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, said while education was the key that opened the gate to the total development of human beings, the government alone could not provide the necessary resources, saying, “This is a shared responsibility with PTAs and other benevolent organisations to build our schools.”
The minister, who commended the PTA of the Aburi Girls’ SHS for its commitment to the school’s development, appealed to other PTAs to emulate the “shining example of what this association has done for the school”.
For their part, the Headmistress of the school, Mrs Silvia Asempa, and the Chairman of the PTA, Prof. Eniu Kwesi, noted that the construction of the water sachet plant would help address the acute water problem facing the students and their teachers.
That, they said, would enhance teaching and learning in the school.
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