The planned ban of National Parents Teachers Association

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.