The former Public Relations Officer for the Ministry of Education Kwasi Kwarteng has clarified that Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs) were not abolished but restructured to prevent the financial exploitation of parents.
In a social media post, the PRO stated that some schools had turned PTAs into revenue-generating schemes, denying students access to education if their parents failed to pay dues.
“Before this reform, PTAs in some schools had turned into revenue-generating schemes, where students whose parents were unable to pay PTA dues were denied access to education, prevented from attending classes, or even barred from writing exams,” the statement explained.
To address this, the government redefined parental involvement by separating Parent Associations from Teacher Associations. This move was aimed at ensuring that contributions remained voluntary and that students were not disadvantaged due to their parents’ inability to pay PTA dues.
“The solution was to separate Parent Association (PA) from Teacher Association, ensuring that parental contributions & support remained voluntary and that no student faced academic discrimination or frustration due to the inability of their parents to fulfill financial obligations under the PTA,” the statement added.
The statement further refuted claims that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) would introduce the National Standardized Test (NST), emphasizing that the policy was first implemented in 2021 under the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration.
“Similarly, the assertion that the NDC government is rather going to “introduce” a National Standardized Test (NST) is equally misleading. The NST initiative was first implemented in 2021 under the NPP Administration”.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Deborah Amuzu
