The National Council of Parent-Teacher Associations, NCPTA, in the Eastern Region has expressed worry over intermittent food shortage in Senior high schools in the country fearing it may spark agitations if not fixed immediately.
Delays in delivery of nonperishable food items to most schools intermittently result in a shortage of food items, hampering academic activities. Some parents have expressed concern over the poor quality of meal service to the students.
Speaking during the inauguration of the Akuapem Zone of the 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 the 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. The government is doing its best by offering this free SHS. In the 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 contribution it will make education stronger”
The NCPTA believes stronger collaboration with the government could help mitigate some of the challenges facing the implementation of the Free SHS policy.
Some of the PTA representatives suggested to the government to review the Free Senior High School policy to let parents pay for items such as feeding and boarding fees to reduce the financial burden crippling the economy.
NCPTA used the opportunity to appeal to the striking teacher unions to rescind their strike action while negotiation with the government continues stating that a 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 the closure of schools for almost a year.
The Zonal executives for the 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 fulfillment 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 the report of various projects embarked on in their schools this year and stressed the challenge of the reluctance of some parents to pay dues due to the failure of the government to be forthright on payment of PTA dues.
Source: Mybrytnewsroom.com/Obed Ansah
