DON'T SHIRK RESPONSIBILITIES (GRAPHIC NSEMPA, NOV 2, PAGE 3)

By Samuel Duodu,Nsawkaw

The Chief of Bui, Nana Kwadwo Wuo II, has appealed to parents and guardians not to view the School Feeding Programme and Capitation Grant as substitutes for their parental duties.
He stated that the intention of the government was to lighten the huge burden that parents and guardians throughout the country had.
Nana Wuo II, who is an educationist at the Tain District Education Directorate, made the appeal at a forum organised by Action Aid Ghana in collaboration with SODIA, an education-oriented non-governmental organisation (NGO) for the executive members of the parent teacher associations (PTA) and school management committees (SMCs) in the district at Nsawkaw.
He cited an instance when a parent from the district in the Brong Ahafo Region recently had a confrontation with a head teacher because the head teacher had refused to release his child’s share of the Capitation Grant to him, adding that the parent’s reaction was triggered by the wrong impression that the government had the absolute duty of enhancing education and had also taken upon itself the responsibility of parents.
The Chief of Bui noted that parents had an obligation towards the maintenance of their children and the intervention by the government was to assist parents to enrol their children in school as well as to lighten the burden on them.
Nana Wuo further stated that the delivery of quality education was a shared responsibility between government, teachers, parents and the students, adding, “Our educational system will improve tremendously if every party plays their part well”.
 He challenged the PTAs and SMCs to adhere to their core functions as mandated by law to ensure improvement in the education sector “It is unfortunate that most PTAs and SMCs in our district have become dormant. This is your wake-up call”, the chief said.
He commended the organisers for their contribution towards education and urged them to continue with their good work.
The participants at the forum also complained about how most head teachers did not involve them in matters relating to the disbursement of the Capitation Grant. they therefore appealed to the Ghana Education Service (GES) to address such problems and the need for the GES to hold regular meetings with them to broaden their knowledge on the subject.
In a related development, the Tain District Director of Education, Mr Francis Dongbetigre, has appealed to teachers to avoid viewing transfers as a form of punishment. He said the GES transferred teachers where their services were urgently needed.
He warned that any teacher who refused to accept any posting would be sanctioned according to the service’s code of conduct.
Mr Dongbetigre, therefore, appealed to stakeholders in various communities who often flocked to GES offices to plead on behalf of transferred teachers to agree that it was in the interest of quality education that transfers were initiated.