Mathew Opoku Prempeh(left)
MINISTER OF Education, Mathew Opoku Prempeh, has urged Parents Teachers Associations (PTAs) within Ghana’s educational system to shift their focus from dues collection to demanding accountability from the schools on the quality of education and their learning outcomes.
He made the appeal on Friday, March 15, 2019, when he met with national executives of PTAs in his office in Accra.
Commenting on the meeting, the minister said in a statement, “I also stated that the priority of the PTA should shift from dues collection to demanding accountability from the schools on the quality of education and their learning outcomes.”
He bemoaned that “sadly, PTA has now become synonymous to money collection and this should not be the case.”
He added that “the first thing I made clear to the organisation was that under Article 176 of the 1992 Constitution monies that are collected through a public institution (and in this context, PTA dues taken from students) automatically become public funds and are subject to the management and decisions of government.”
According to him, “Therefore, if the dues are continually collected through students, the use of the funds was subject to the approval of government.”
The minister added that “I charged the PTA to rearrange their priorities, focus on how they can get the best out of teachers, engage and partner the Ghana Education Service (GES) to improve accountability in schools and rebrand the entire PTA from a levy collecting association to a strong body that puts schools on their toes to perform as expected.”
He stated that “the members assured us that they are working on a new operational strategy and that the council is far advanced in setting up a new national payment system where all monies will be collected and disbursed to various schools to cater for specifics.”
BY Melvin Tarlue