The Ghana Education Service (GES) has suspended the collection of Parent Teacher Association (PTA) dues in all Senior High Schools in the country.
According to the GES, this is to enable them to streamline and review all such levies in all second cycle schools.
The Director General of the GES, Prof. Kwesi Opoku Amankwa, told the Daly Graphic that his outfit was concerned with the proliferation of all manner of levies under the guise of PTA dues.
“These levies are defeating the objective of the government in removing cost as a barrier to secondary education in Ghana,” he said
Prof. Amankwa said the “pending the streamlining and review of all these levies, it is the expectation of the management that heads of schools and PTA executives will cooperate in this exercise to ensure that the free SHS programme is successfully implemented.”
The Council Chairman of the GES, Michael Nsowah, also warned that the management of the GES would sanction heads of SHSs/TVET who meddle in PTA activities.
“Heads of SHSs are once again warned that in no circumstance are they to get involved in the collection of PTA dues and levies.”
He urged all students to report to school without reference to PTA activities such as dues and levies.
Regional and district directors of education have also been put on alert to keep a closer eye on second cycle schools.
When the Free Secondary Education policy started, there were complaints that schools had been charging PTA levies to cover items like mosquito nets, brooms, hoes and other implements.
The free SHS policy covers an item called teacher motivation, which the government indicated was to cater for the needs that are often taken care of with PTA levies.
On parent-teacher association (PTA) dues, he said schools could not ask first-year students to pay PTA dues “because PTA dues are fixed when parents meet the school authorities to determine what kind of help they (parents) can give to the school”.
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By: citinewsroom.com | Ghana
