The Wesley Girls Senior High School (SHS) Parent Teacher Association (PTA) is requesting stakeholder participation in the assessment of the Free SHS policy.
This comes after the headmistress and head prefect of the school said that some girls are compelled to sleep on the ground because of traffic and crowding.
The PTA claims that due to the free SHS policy, they are unable to provide basic infrastructure support to the school.
Speaking at the speech and prize-giving day over the weekend, the association stated, “Most of them are arguing that because the government has tied parents’ hands, it loves their children more than parents love their children.
“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 is done by the PTA and the community that put up this school, but the government came in and said parents should not pay PTA dues.”
The PTA contends that to solve the infrastructure issues at Wesley Girls SHS and senior high schools generally, cooperative efforts are now necessary.
In light of this, they urged the government to convene a review policy discussion with all pertinent parties.
A mother bemoaned the way her daughter’s treatment at school had negatively impacted her health.
She emphasized that ever since school started again, her daughter had been sleeping on the floor.
She said that the girl only attended school on the day of the reopening to avoid spending the night on the floor.
“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 about her tummy, she has been admitted to the hospital but she said the doctors suspect it’s an ulcer. It’s very bad, we are not saying they should not eat gari, but the gari is too much” she added.
Dr. Clement Apaak, the Deputy Ranking Member of the Parliamentary Education Committee, is skeptical that the free SHS policy will alter shortly.
He emphasized that members of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) on the committee are reluctant to discuss proposals for a review of the policy.
