Ghana’s Second Lady, Mrs Matilda Amissah-Arthur has chastised heads of public schools for making unnecessary requests from government.
She argued that because government has taken it upon itself to provide items such as school uniforms, free lunch for pupils and free sandals, parents and teachers are shirking their responsibilities.
“I think we have over pampered you people. Because we have provided free school uniforms so parents don’t even want to buy basic things for their children,” she complained.
Her outburst followed a request made by the headmistress of Kukurantumi Presby Primary School, Juliet Oppong for the government to among other things, provide her school with chalks after the second lady presented five sets of computers to the school.
Mrs. Amissah-Arthur stunned the chiefs and people of Kukurantumi in the Eastern Region when she blatantly turned down the request and rather chastised the headmistress for making such a request.
“I will not give you chalk today, neither will I give it to you tomorrow. You have teachers; you have the PTA, go and buy chalk for the school,” she fumed.
“The head teacher has shocked me. So if the government has provided free school uniforms and it is not up to the number your school needs, can’t you look for other alternatives to provide these items?”
“You also mentioned that your school does not have chalk, log books; all these are not expensive. The government provides all these teaching and learning materials but sometimes, it is not enough for all the schools across the country.”
She argued that schools are made to set up Parent and Teachers Associations (PTA) to support government’s effort in the provision of logistics for schools.
“All they have to do is to gather a few resources to buy their logistics for the school,” she suggested.
According to Mrs Amissah-Arthur, government provides more than three quarters of the items public schools need “so the various schools are to provide the remainder so I am very hurt that you are asking me for chalk.”
Click on link below to listen to Mrs. Amissah-Arthur
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By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana