The Parent Teacher Association (PTA) of the Wesley Girls Senior High School (SHS) is calling for a stakeholder engagement towards a review of the Free SHS policy.
This comes after the head prefect and the headmistress of the school stated that some girls are forced to sleep on the floor due to overcrowding and congestion.
According to the PTA, they are unable to support the school with basic infrastructure because the free SHS policy does not permit them to.
Speaking at the speech and prize-giving day held over the weekend, the association said “Most of them are saying the government loves their children more than parents loving their kids, because the government has tied the hands of parents.
“It’s like you want to help but you cannot because the government says they want to do it and they are not even doing it.
“Most of the infrastructure that we have in the school are done by the PTA and the community that put up this school, but government came in and said parents should not pay PTA dues.”
The PTA argues that it is time for collaborative efforts to address the infrastructure challenges in Wesley Girls SHS and senior high schools at large.
On the back of this, they called on the government to engage all relevant stakeholders to have a discussion to review the policy.
A mother lamented that her daughter’s health has severely been affected by the treatment she receives in the school.
She stressed that her daughter has been sleeping on the floor since school resumed.
According to her, the daughter went to school the same day of reopening just to avoid sleeping on the floor.
“My daughter has been sleeping on the floor since they resumed this term, she went to the school I think December, and she had a bed thinking that going to the school this term she would get a bed, she reported the same day the school reopened, but you will be surprised the girl is sleeping on the floor.”
She stressed that the school is not giving the girls much food to eat, and the food is not of good quality.
“To be frank they are not eating any better food at all so every time my daughter will call that mommy I don’t have money; the food is not enough and sometimes it is not even good.
“This girl left home without stomach pain, but now she will call complaining that her tummy, she has been admitted to the hospital but she said the doctors are suspecting it’s ulcer. It’s very bad, we are not saying they should not eat gari, but the gari is too much” she added.
However, the Deputy Ranking Member on the Education Committee of Parliament, Dr Clement Apaak doubts there will be any changes to the free SHS policy.
He stressed that anytime calls for a review of the policy come up, members of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) on the committee shy away from talking about it.
“I don’t have faith in the education committee to take any action as a unit on this matter because those of us on the NDC side, we have issued press statements, we have issued press releases, we have spoken about the challenges bedeviling with the implementation of the policy.
“Our colleagues who belong to the NPP on the same committee pretend to shy away,” he added.
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