Free SHS is meaningless without support of parents – National Council of PTA

The Western Regional Chairman of the National Council of Parent Teacher Association(PTA), Daniel Vroom-Laryea has expressed worry over the exclusion of parents in the management of public Senior High Schools by the government.

He explained that although the free Senior High School policy is a good one, it will not succeed without the support of parents.

The association added that the prevention of parents supporting the various schools is posing more challenges for students as the government is sometimes unable to meet all their demands.

“Parents are now being prevented from helping the schools, but we must know that free SHS is meaningless without the support of parents. We even recorded over 21 pregnancies in one of the senior high schools last year, because the school had no wall, and the students were being sneaked out. We are not being made to help, the government has stopped PTA from doing everything in the schools and that is a problem,” Mr. Vroom-Laryea noted in an interview monitored by The Ghana Report on Connect FM.

First-year students who joined various second-cycle institutions resumed on December 4, 2024.

According to the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Director of the Ghana Education Service, Sally Nelly Coleman, over 137,000 fresh students placed in the 2023 Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) into Senior High Schools and Technical and Vocational Education and Training Schools across the country, have not shown up for admissions in their various Senior High Schools.

Mr. Coleman described the situation as worrying and was of the view that the reopening date was not favourable to parents and students.

“The re-opening date for the schools was not favourable for both parents and the students. Cocoa farmers in the rural areas are complaining that they had little yield in the year and so they don’t have the money to take their children to school. They must fill their chop boxes, some parents are even renting for their children to be in school, they must buy a lot of things for them to be in school. So, for all those who have not reported, it is due to financial issues. The free SHS is becoming more expensive than we thought. There are more hidden issues to the free senior high school than we have all been made to believe,” he noted.