The National Council of Parent-Teacher Associations (NCPTAs) has called for the shutdown of Senior High Schools (SHSs) until feeding and other serious issues are resolved.

According to the NCPTAs, nothing was working when the schools reopened on Friday, January 3, 2025.

"Nothing is working in our schools. Raphael Kofi Gapson, General Secretary of the NCPTAs, told the Daily Graphic on Thursday, January 10, 2025, that all of the previous government's assurances that they would help with feeding and provide cash for feeding were not fulfilled.

Mr Gapson stated that the group has long believed that schools will not be fully prepared to reopen on January 3, 2025, due to food, funding, and other logistical restrictions.

He claimed that schools lacked both boarder meals and the necessary resources to support their full operations.

He claimed that the previous government merely gave lip service to the free SHS program while the issues grew by the day and appeared to spiral out of control.



"So, you cannot say you are providing feeding or funding help to the schools and then send them 20 or 30 grammes (of food) per day to run the school.



grammes per day, and you want them to operate the schools flawlessly.

Mr. Gapson was curious: "How do they run the schools with 30 grammes a day when their budget for that day is 100 grammes?"

The associations, he said, were willing to help the operation of the SHSs, and he emphasized that in some schools, they were paying additional cooks not hired by the government to cater to huge numbers of students.

Furthermore, he stated that they paid for security personnel to be stationed in schools that lacked adequate security, and that if the government identified places where the NCPTAs might assist, they would gladly provide that assistance.

"We are currently using our PTA funds, which have become the proverbial Akobalm, as a special purpose vehicle for providing feeding support, extra classes, support for security and safety in schools, recruitment of kitchen staff, utilities, sports, culture, quizzes, debates, examinations and various infrastructure projects and logistics," he told me.

As the reopening date for SHSs approached on January 3, 2025, the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) petitioned the Ghana Education Service to postpone it until the government settled the outstanding debt for food and operations.

In a statement made on December 31, 2024, the school heads stated that the government had failed to react to three pleas for payment of arrears covering perishables, recurring fees, and food transportation costs since August 2024.

Baro Primus, the National Secretary of CHASS, has urged all Regional branches to alert parents of the probable delay via parent associations.

The school administrators cautioned that anyone who disobeyed the directive would face consequences for violating their collective attitude.

Mr Gapson stated that the NCPTAs and other educational stakeholders have attempted to support the schools in a variety of ways.

He claimed that when the group voiced concerns, CHASS had become a political weapon for the government to conceal information.

He claimed that CHASS had supported the government even when things were clearly not done properly.

"Finally, it (CHASS) came out with the right verdict by saying that over two and a half years, it had issues with government over its lackadaisical attitude in addressing the feeding challenges and funding challenges at the secondary level," according to him.

Mr Gapson stated that the concerns had been brushed under the carpet, and that school principals were now urging the incoming government to address them.

"We should have closed the schools and told the students to go home so that we could take our time, clean up the mess, and ensure that the youngsters returned to school in a more favorable and peaceful environment for effective and easy teaching and learning.

"The schools are public schools, and they should operate under an open school climate rather than a closed school climate," he added, emphasizing that nothing was working in the schools.

"We prefer our students to be at home and in our custody so that they can be well fed and safe," the NCPTAs' General Secretary stated.

He stated that key parties should gather around a table to discuss solutions to the situation.

Even at the primary school level, he stated, the capitation grant had been in place for more than two and a half years.