OLA PTA to levy parents toward school fence wall

Ho, Feb. 9, GNA - Members of the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) of the OLA Girls Secondary School in Ho on Saturday mandated its executives to seek the necessary clearance from the Ghana Education Service (GES) to levy each parent 50,000 cedis per student per term for three terms to finance the construction of a fence wall around the school.

The members observed that even though the PTA had already attained a maximum of 80,000 cedis allowed by the Ghana Education Service (GES) as levies, the rampant stealing of students and school property and the risk of sexual assault on the students necessitated the construction of the wall around the school, which had become a thoroughfare.

They agreed that despite the GES directive to PTAs that their levies should not exceed 80,000 cedis, some PTAs in other parts of the country were charging more to ensure that they provided the conditions necessary for their wards to score excellent results.

In their view the strict adherence to such directives in the Volta Region and the tendency on the part of some parents to question the collective decisions of the PTAs in such matters accounted for the dismal academic performance in the region.

Members observed that the GES officials who fashioned out such directives were themselves paying more as PTA dues because they recognised that it was necessary for the attainment of the best results. They said there was the need to be realistic about the extra financial obligations from parents towards arresting the falling standards of education and academic performance in the Volta Region.

The members, however, called for the prioritisation of projects to ensure that the most pressing were tackled with the limited financial resources available.

Mr Leonard A.Y. Kokorokoh, Chairman of the PTA impressed it upon the members that the executives could not act arbitrarily on matters of levies because the desires of a majority of members was not enough to charge such levies.

He observed that some parents found it difficult to make the extra financial commitments hence their complaints and the sensitivity of the GES and government to such matters.

Mr Kokorokoh told members that the Association had paid 150 million cedis out of over 300 million cedis owed to a contractor on work so far executed on the school's Assembly Hall project from their student levy of 30,000 cedis per student.

He said unless there was an intervention from somewhere it would take the PTA over 10 years to pay the remaining 250 million cedis calculated on the prevailing cedi to the dollar rate if negotiations with the contractor to peg the remaining debt at a point failed. Mr Kokorokoh said from July 2003 to date the PTA spent 34.7 million cedis as incentives to support various activities in the school.