The National Executive Director of the Ghana National Council of Private Schools (GNACOPS), Obenfo Nana Kwasi Gyetuah, has strongly opposed what he describes as an unlawful attempt by the Ghana Education Service (GES) to regulate the operations of Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs) in schools.
His comments follow a recent directive by GES mandating the reinstatement of PTAs in all public pre-tertiary institutions, in line with a presidential order initially issued by former President John Dramani Mahama.
While Mr. Gyetuah supports the restoration of PTAs as a platform for school-community collaboration, he insists that the GES has overstepped its legal boundaries by seeking to impose regulatory control over what he maintains are voluntary, independent associations.
In an exclusive interview with Modern Ghana Online, the GNACOPS Director argued that under the Pre-Tertiary Education Act 1049, the GES has no statutory mandate to issue operational guidelines for PTAs. He stressed that PTAs are governed by their own constitutions or articles of incorporation, and their activities cannot be dictated by agencies that are not part of their internal structures.
“I support the reinstatement of PTAs in all schools as communicated by GES,” he stated. “But GES is statutorily barred by the Pre-tertiary Education Act 1049 from setting guidelines for the regulation of PTAs’ operations in schools as purported in GES’s current communiqué.”
Mr. Gyetuah further clarified that PTA membership is voluntary, not mandated by law, and thus should not be subjected to external oversight from state agencies.
“The recommendation is that PTAs are voluntary associations where affiliations are not by operation of law but by voluntary decisions of persons. Therefore, such associations are managed by articles of incorporation, not by guidelines developed by another institution that is not a member of the PTA,” he said.
The GNACOPS boss has called for clarity in the GES’s approach and urged education authorities to respect the autonomy of PTAs while working collaboratively to improve education outcomes.
