AFFED welcomes move to reintroduce PTA in schools

The African Foundation For Educational Development (AFFED) has welcomed the decision by the government to reintroduce the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) arrangement in schools.

The Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu on Monday February 17  announced that the PTA will be reintroduced in public schools.

He explained that the government aims to ensure a more inclusive education system where parents, teachers, and administrators work together to ensure quality education for all students.

Speaking at a public forum the Minister said “I am particularly happy to announce that PTAs will be introduced back into the management of education under the presidency of His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, to work for parents and teachers to work together to improve learning outcomes in our educational institutions. And for PTAs to support our educational institutions to produce quality human capital for the country.”

The reintroduction of PTAs is expected to provide additional support to public schools, helping to address concerns such as infrastructure development, student discipline, and academic performance. Previously, PTAs played a key role in shaping policies at the school level, but their influence has been reduced in recent years.

Reacting to this development, AFFED lauded the Minister for Education for reassuring “this bold solution to revamp  PTA’s.”

However, it notes that the PTA’s should be strengthened with their harmonised framework covering the entire pre-tertiary education level that will serve as a guide as well a check on their activities.

In a statement issued by its Executive Director Ernest Adade, AFFED said “The restructuring of Parent Teacher Associations (PTA) to Parent Association (PA) with the motive of ‘saving’ parents from financial exploitation did more harm than good. In fact, it made the schools so weak and hence, running them  aground. Take for instance a basic school that has not received even the meagre capitation grant  due them for more than eight terms and still don’t have access to parental support because there is a directive barring parental involvement.

“The arguments and reasoning advanced for the supposedly restructuring was  weakly thought through. African Foundation For Educational Development (AFFED) lauds the Minister for Education for reassuring this bold solution to revamp  PTA’s. However, the PTA’s should be strengthened with their harmonised framework covering the entire pre-tertiary education level that will serve as a guide as well a check on their activities.

“On the issue of the National Standardized Test, it has equally been in implementation since 2021 and that cannot be said to be a new introduction,”

 

 

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