The planned ban of National Parents Teachers Association

The planned ban of National Parents Teachers Association
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By Our Reporter  on December 4, 2015  
THE Federal Government recently said that it would soon pro- scribe the National Parents Teachers Association (PTA) of Federal Government Colleges. However, government says it will allow only PTAs within the unity schools to continue to function in view of the crucial roles they play. The Minister of State for Education, Prof. Anthony Anwuka, who made the pronouncement during a parley with journalists in Abuja, explained that the move was necessitated by the bickering between the Unity Schools and the national PTA body.
Anwuka also explained that the PTAs evolved in Federal Government Colleges because parents had on their own decided to form the PTA meeting in order to raise funds to augment the funding by the Federal Government to the unity schools and stressed that they were doing well, electing their own officers and helping to run these schools.
The minister also said that the emergence of the national PTA and their intention to impose supremacy on the local PTAs is the cause of the crisis. He implored them to allow peace to reign and leave the system to run the way it has been running without any meddlesomeness.
It is commendable that government has expressed worries over the excesses of the national PTA and threatened to ban it if the members did not desist from their undue interference in the running of these schools. But we think that outright banning of the organization may not be the right step to take as it may prove to be counter productive in the end.
Beyond the ban, we urge the government to investigate why the national PTA has suddenly be- come unruly and overbearing in the conduct of its affairs.
After the investigation, government can then determine whether the ban is the best approach to solve the problem or not. We think that ban does not always solve a problem of this nature. In- stead of the ban, government can reform the national PTA in such a way that it will not constitute a problem in the running of the unity schools again.
Apart from the fact that the country’s constitution guaranteed the right to freedom of association, which also applies to the PTA, we think that the PTA might have served many useful purposes before the crisis of confidence set in.
In an era of inadequate funding for schools by the government, the PTAs from which the national PTA emerged, have come in to fill some missing funding gaps. Besides contributing to infrastructure development of these schools, the PTAs have also helped with the recruitment of some teachers in key subject areas like English, Mathematics and Sciences, and other vital logistics in these schools.
Unfortunately, the leadership of some of these local PTAs has be- come the exclusive preserve of a select few, especially those the school authorities prefer, while excluding others from the inner workings of the associations. We believe that the local PTAs as well need urgent reforms in order to remain focused and relevant in unity schools.
There is need to ensure that all parents and teachers are fully involved in the running of the lo- cal PTAs and show more interest in their operations. The present practice where some of these bodies are allowed to run for years without having their accounts audited and vetted is not healthy. And due to the undemocratic nature of the running of some of these local PTAs, some parents have decided to stay away from their meetings.
There is no doubt that the problem of the national PTA is a manifestation of the ills from the lo- cal PTAs. These are some of the issues the government would take into consideration in resolving the current crisis.
We do not believe that banning the national PTA is the needed solution to the problem at hand. The problem in our education system, especially at primary and secondary levels, needs the input of parents and teachers for it to be overcome. Therefore, government and the PTAs should work as a team to solve it.