Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) and School management Committee (SMC) in Moglaa of the Savelugu municipality are worried over the falling standard of education in the area.
The PTA and the SMC say the abysmal performance by the pupils at the basic level in the area in 2013 needs serious attention by all stakeholders in education.
majority of the parents blamed dwindling performance on the pupils’ abandonment of their studies and resorting to dancing foreign dance such as Azonto, new popular Ghanaian dance and watching movies which later dominate discussions in school instead of learning.
The women in the community say they have regretted for not being to school and that they are committed in schooling their children to the highest level of the academic ladder.
They however say their only problem is low level of their income to take care of the children’s education. At a sensitization meeting of opinion leaders, teachers, PTA and SMCs to deliberate on how to improve education in the area, stakeholders agreed that there should be punitive measures to instill discipline among students in Moglaa. The meeting was organized by Regional Information Network System (RAINS).
RAINS under its educational component are undertaking a project called Improving Educational Governance and Accountability IEGA which is being sponsored by STAR-Ghana.
The Head teacher of the Moglaa JHS Fuseheini Haruna lamented about pupil abandonment of classes on market days and appealed to parents to prevail on their children to stop the practice. The project officer EIGA, Salifu Rabi told parents that RAINS system has several projects that have an educational component in them, but one particularly area of concern is the educational governance which is being funded by STAR-GHANA.
The EIGA project she explained is in four districts which are Savelugu, West Mamprusi, Kariga and Gushegu and in each district they have two communities.
In Savelugu they have Lang and Moglaa and in West Mamprusi- Dibusi and Bulbia, Kariga-Tuuyini and Pishegu and Gushegu –Zamshegu and Waantugu.
Each district, the project is, it work with district education offices and district assemblies, together with other committees that are relevant to education or working in line with education.
So they have district stakeholder platform in these districts and also a coalition of CSOs that are working in education in each of these four districts, they do work with SMCs and PTAs at the community level.
’’When EIGA gets to the community with the help of the PTAs and SMCs, they come together to address issues and some of the things they did per last quarter of the previous year’’ Rabi explained further.
By this, sensitizations are carried across on the need to attend PTA meetings, they also have training on some advocacy bases and lobbying for PTA SMCs and issues of capitation grant.
Due to their sensitizations and discussions with them, some of them for instance in Tuuyini. The project aim is basically to achieve quality education through strengthening the governance structure of education in the district and community level.
what they are doing is to ensure each child gets the best of education and also to strengthen the structure that are supposed to work, so that they will give back to the same children, the project officer added.
They also are working in line with proper collaboration with the media which is another component, getting the voices of the community heard and whatever the problem is they say it to the duty bearers to respond.
So after community interface with the media and engagement, they don’t leave it there, they make follow-ups to see at the side of the media what has been done back in the community what change has taken place and also with the duty bearers what are they doing to respond to whatever advocacy issues these people are taking across, Rabi explained.
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