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.”
source:Citifmonline
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