The Headmaster of Bolgatanga Senior High School, (BIG BOSS), Anthony Adimazoya, has appealed to parents to endeavor to support senior high schools to operate smoothly.
He explained that parents must help second circle institutions to be able to improve the care given to children and to be able to deal with some challenges in the schools.
Mr. Adimazoya lamented the little interest of parents in attending meetings and understanding the efforts of school authorities, the challenges of the schools, and why they need to support schools to operate in a manner that will improve academic performance.
Speaking during the handing over of a renovated dormitory block by the Parents Association of the school, he noted that many parents assume that the implementation of the Free Senior High School program does not make it necessary for them to contribute to cater for the needs of their children.
He narrated that the situation is worse for schools in Northern Ghana because many no longer find the need to contribute because of the Free SHS policy. According to him, other parts of the country have parents willingly contributing in diverse ways to improve infrastructure for schools and help school authorities operate.
It would be recalled that the parents association has been delinked from the school set up with the government instructing that schools should have no role to play in the collection of levies involving parents. This means that, for parents to collect levies, they will need to develop an accounting system that is not linked to the school structure and have someone stationed at the school to collect the levies.
It also means that contributions from parents are no longer compulsory and this has compounded the situation for many schools and parent associations.
Mr. Adimazoya cited a situation he encountered involving a student who once reported to school without anything in his chop box and when he was quizzed, the student explained that the parents said there is free education and he only needed to report because the government will provide every other thing.
He hopes that parents will begin to see the need to contribute to ensure schools operate smoothly.
“Unfortunately, with the parents, the support is no longer like before. Education of our wards is an investment. If you don’t invest in their future, you will not get the full benefits. Because of the free senior high school program, many people just think that everything is free so why do they have to contribute money again? But I think that we need to give education to parents to support their children in the various schools. As for meetings, when you call for meetings, they don’t come. When I was at Bongo Senior High School, a student came with an empty box and said the parents said it is free senior high school.” Mr. Adimazoya lamented
