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The Concerned Parents Association of Ridge Church School has petitioned the Minister of Education on the flagrant disregard of the Presidential directive for all schools under the GES to cancel their 3rd term within the current academic year, with the resumption of a new school year in January 2021.
The Association expressed legitimate concerns about the running of the school and called on the Minister of Education, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh to intervene in the matter.
Though the Concerned Parents officially petitioned the school administration and Ridge Church Council to discuss this fee, the school according to them, refused to acknowledge the petition and initiate any dialogue whatsoever in this regard.
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In a letter dated September 25, 2020, and addressed to the Minister, the parents noted, “On July 17, 2020, Parents of Ridge Church School received communication from the school administration outlining the timetable for promotional examinations. The School, according to them, stated, “if Government does not re-open schools before August 12, 2020, Ridge Church School will proceed with its Trinity Term by means of an e-learning programme with improvements and more room for interaction with learners.”
The letter to the Minister, was signed by Ernest Osei-Poku, Spokesperson for the Association on behalf of David Tetteh-Amey Abbey, who is the President of the Concerned Parents Association of Ridge Church School.
The directive from the school, the Concerned Parents said, is in direct contravention of the President’s directive which was announced on
Sunday August 31, 2020, stating: “‘The Ghana Education Service, after further consultation, has decided to postpone the remainder of the academic year for all nursery, kindergarten, primary, JHS1 and SHS1 students. The next academic year will resume in January 2021 with appropriate adjustments made to the curriculum, to ensure that nothing is lost from the previous year.’
Indeed the Association, is worried that the Administration and the Board of Directors of the School are in bed with the PTA and are proceeding with promotional examinations for all students and demanding an e-learning fee of GHc1,603.
The Concerned Parents of the school, who are also part of the PTA, are implicating the leadership of the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) for acting autonomously and without consulting or seeking parents’ agreement prior to making decisions on their behalf.
The Concerned Parents of Ridge Church School are stating categorically that, there has been no PTA meeting where parents have agreed to the charging of the current fees nor the conduct of the examination.
According to the Concerned Parents, there has been only on virtual PTA meeting involving parents since March this year, which ended abruptly without any resolution.
Meanwhile, the Parents have said they are being forced to pay the fees through a numbers of strategies adopted by the school.
“All examinations have a compulsory section B which was to be collected, in person, by all parents at the school premises on Wednesday 23rd September 2020. Parents had to produce a receipt showing full or part payment of fees in order to collect the above- mentioned section B.” the Parents said.
The association has vowed to stop any move that will be employed to use this examination to assess any child of the school in order to gain promotion to the next class.
The parents are therefore seeking the urgent intervention of the Ministry of Education, the President and all other stakeholders to ensure, that Ridge Church School is playing by the same rules as every other Ghana Education Service (GES) school, and that, parents are not unduly penalised and children excluded from being promoted to the next grade in the next academic year.
