The National Council of Parent-Teacher Associations (NCPTA) has expressed concern about the alleged persistent snub by the Ghana Education Service (GES) over matters affecting students in both junior and senior high schools in the country.
Even though parents are �major stakeholders� in the education sector, they are not consulted over pertinent issues concerning students, especially at the SHS level, NCPTA noted.
�Ghana�s education sector is troubled by runaway costs, shrinking access and poor outcomes. The GES, which has the mandate to lead the values of teaching and learning, has increasingly shifted attention from its core roles, focusing more money and procedural issues,� Alexander Yaw Danso National President of NCPTAs, said at the news conference in Accra yesterday.
According to Mr. Danso, �No encouragement is given to productive partnerships and engagement with parents, families and communities in the quest for continuous improvements.
�Parents are systematically subverted and subsumed under school authorities.
They said that GES had failed to deliver the desired quality outcome and �yet continues to stifle the emergence of a committed and demanding voice from PTAs, ensuring there is no viable alternative to drive reforms from dynamic change in our education and child development sector.
�The cost of education, particularly at the second cycle school level, is a matter of concern for all. Policy makers and parents are united in the desire to curb runaway costs, without compromising efforts to improve standards and outcomes.�
PTA levies attract special interests and any serious bid to reduce the financial burden of education on parents must necessarily address PTA levies, he said.
The council complained about what it termed as �School heads� creeping sense of ownership of PTA funds.
�Attempts to over the years officially regulate PTA levies from the top and the lack of financial discipline have led to some school heads and bursars developing a sense of entitlement to control of PTA funds.
For instance, the directive from the GES asking school heads to incorporate PTA funds into mainstream school accounts and making school heads and bursars signatories had usurped the power of parents to effectively decide on issues affecting their children in the schools, they said.
�The GES sent circulars to schools without informing us but the issues raised in these circulars concern our children.�
Mr. Danso promised that the council would use dialogue to get the issues addressed and strengthen the relationship between parents and teachers.
Torgbui Duklui Attipoe V, Vice President of the NCPTAs, bemoaned the lack of coordination between the GES and the exams council over the timely release of results of students.
The situation has resulted in some students entering school very late, he said.
He called for a probe into mass failure of students, saying �it is not right for some schools to have zero percent. We deserve better.�
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