The National Council of Parent Teacher Associations (NCPTA), in Eastern Region says it is planning to meet heads of secondary schools to see how best the association could help ameliorate the intermittent food shortages in the schools.
Delays in delivery of nonperishable food items to most schools intermittently result in shortage of food items, hampering academic activities. Some parents have expressed concern over the poor quality of meals service the students.
Speaking to Starr News during the inauguration of Akuapem Zone of National Council of Parent-Teacher Associations on Saturday July 9, 2022 the Eastern Regional Chairman of the Association Joshua Terkpernor said parents are ready and willing to support government to resolve feeding challenges in the schools.
“Normally what we do is, we meet with the authorities to see how best we can solve the problem because they are our children. Government is doing its best by offering this free SHS. In Eastern region alone, we have about 100 Senior High Schools, Central and other regions may have even more so as parents we may have to come in to also support the free SHS and when we come in to support the free SHS through our little, little contribution it will make education become stronger.”
The NCPTA believes stronger collaboration with government could help mitigate some of the challenges facing the implementation of the Free SHS policy.
Some of the PTA representatives suggested to government to review the Free Senior High School policy to let parents pay for items such as feeding and boarding fees to reduce financial burden crippling the economy.
NCPTA used the opportunity to appeal to the striking teacher unions to rescind their strike action while negotiation with government continues stating that prolonged strike will affect the students particularly candidates preparing to write the West Africa Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) since they had already lost many contact hours during the COVID-19 pandemic which led to closure of schools for almost a year.
The Zonal executives for National Council of Parent -Teacher Associations for Akuapem Zone made up seventeen second cycle institutions elected to coordinate the activities of PTA in the schools in fulfilment of the broad vision of the association to become a stronger body in the education sector in the country to influence decision making and contribute to the improvement of quality education delivery and development in the schools.
The PTAs in various schools in the zone presented report of various projects embarked on in their schools this year and stressed on challenge of reluctance of some parents to pay dues due to failure by government to be forthright on payment of PTA dues.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Kojo Ansah