African Education Watch, an educational think tank, has backed calls by the Conference of Heads of Assisted Senior High Schools (CHASS) for a review of the Free Senior High School policy.

This statement follows calls by the Conference of Heads of Assisted Senior High Schools (CHASS) for a review of government’s flagship Free SHS policy.

According to CHASS, the policy on Parents Teachers Associations (PTAs) in schools should be reviewed.

Speaking at the 5th Annual Conference of CHASS at Wesley Girls High School in Cape Coast, president of the Conference, Yakub AbubakarYakub Abubakar urged the Ghana Education Service (GES) and other stakeholders to consider a reversal of the policy to ensure effective implementation and positive outcomes.

“The observation of the Conference is that PTA activities are gradually dying in our schools. Hitherto, the PTAs were playing very significant roles in our schools. At present, even though there are delays in release of funds, schools do not have the leverage like PTAs to assist them and so making the effective administration of schools problematic. If a policy is in place and for the past three years and it is not working, then we need to take another look at it,” CHASS President Yakub Abubakar said at the association's 5th annual conference.

Speaking in Atinka FM’s AM Drive with host Ekourba Gyasi, Executive Director for African Education Watch, Kofi Asare, explained that the free SHS has halted all the support the PTA offered to all schools.

“From the beginning of the free SHS, government suspended the payment of PTA dues, which was a major support to the finances of the various Senior Secondary schools in the country. The position of government on PTA dues has siphoned the PTA’s energy towards secondary education. It is obvious that parental involvement in education is more when the investment is more. But when everything is free, the commitment will definitely be less,” he explained.