Gov’t to reintroduce Parent Teacher Associations in public schools
The central government is set to reintroduce Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) in public schools to produce quality human resources for the country., the Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu has announced.
The Minister in Charge of Education disclosed this while speaking at a ceremony to inaugurate the Schools Renovation and Upgrade Project initiated by Member of Parliament for Okaikwei South, Ernest Adomako.
“I am particularly happy to announce that PTAs will be introduced back into the management of education in Ghana under the Presidency of His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, for parents and teachers to work together to improve learning outcomes in our educational institutions and for PTAs to support our educational institutions to produce quality human capital for our country,” he said.
Mr Haruna Iddrisu added, “This partnership, he noted, aims to improve learning outcomes in schools and ensure that the education system produces quality human capital for the country’s future.”
He has, therefore, called on stakeholders to engage actively with PTAs to foster better educational environments, saying by reinstating the PTAs, the government aims to strengthen community involvement in schools.
The John Dramani Mahama’s government reintroduction of the Parent Teacher Associations comes after Educational reforms implemented by the previous government took away the PTAs because it did not want students or parents to foot any bill in education at the second cycle level.
The phase-out of Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) in public schools by the erstwhile Nana Akufo-Addo government led to the disbanding of the PTAs, reducing them to Parents Associations (PAs), except in private schools.
The decision to scrap PTAs faced criticism from various stakeholders in the education sector. Many argued that the removal of PTAs diminished teachers’ involvement and weakened the support system for students.
In a related development, the African Foundation For Educational Development (AFFED) has welcomed the decision by the government to reintroduce the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) arrangement in schools.
Reacting to the reintroduction of PTAs, AFFED said it should be strengthened with their harmonised framework covering the entire pre-tertiary education level that will serve as a guide as well as a check on their activities.
In a statement issued by its Executive Director Ernest Adade, AFFED said “The restructuring of Parent Teacher Associations (PTA) to Parent Association (PA) with the motive of ‘saving’ parents from financial exploitation did more harm than good. In fact, it made the schools so weak and hence, running them aground. Take for instance a basic school that has not received even the meagre capitation grant due them for more than eight terms and still don’t have access to parental support because there is a directive barring parental involvement.
The arguments and reasoning advanced for the supposedly restructuring was weakly thought through. African Foundation For Educational Development (AFFED) lauds the Minister for Education for reassuring this bold solution to revamp PTA’s. However, the PTA’s should be strengthened with their harmonised framework covering the entire pre-tertiary education level that will serve as a guide as well a check on their activities.
On the issue of the National Standardized Test, it has equally been in implementation since 2021 and that cannot be said to be a new introduction,”
