Education Ministry to connect directly with PTAs to strengthen partnerships

…will also target attendance, dropout rates

Education Minister, Sonia Parag has announced plans to launch an initiative aimed at the direct interaction between the Education Ministry and the Parent-Teachers Association (PTA) of the schools across the nation. In a video interview posted on the Ministry’s Facebook page on Monday, the Minister expressed her desire to create such an initiative in order to be able to increase the quality of education available to the nation’s children. With the PTA already being an existing body which handles the wellbeing of students the Minister wishes to connect with them on a governmental level. She noted that this initiative will strengthen partnerships between the Government, students, parents and teachers, that students’ needs are being met and policies are being carried out as given by the Ministry.
“I think that engagement is going to assist us and assist parents, teachers, students, with having a better partnership, that we can work together to ensure that schools, that the policies that we are establishing in the Ministry, for example, is being carried out in the schools, that we can get the best results out of, whether that means academic results or whether it is for a better individual,” said the Minister.
Parag noted that while PTAs already exist and have engaged over the years, their interactions have largely been with Ministry offices rather than directly with political leadership. The Minister explained that this new initiative was proposed following consultations with senior Government officials, to engage more directly with PTAs. The Minister highlighted that there is cooperation between the PTA and the Ministry ensuring to produce better results in the overall performance of students. She acknowledged the work of some existing PTAs and communities and commended their work for being involved in lives of students, solving, whether it is infrastructure or other school issues. She said direct engagement would allow the Government to assist in resolving these issues to ensure fully functioning schools with healthy environments for students to learn. Parag indicated that this initiative will begin soon, with scheduled engagements with PTAs across the nation in aims of strengthening the education system and being able to communicate information directly to the Ministry in an easier manner. This step up is to benefit the students and achieve the goals the Ministry wishes to achieve for the entire education sector.
She said “I’ll be starting a scheduled engagement with various PTAs across the country and that is to strengthen our education system, that is to assist us to have direct information sharing between the Ministry, the PTAs, so that we can achieve the goals that we want to achieve, the objectives that we want to achieve for the education, the sector as a whole.”
The Education Minister highlighted the importance of improving student attendance and reducing dropout rates, while strengthening collaboration with parent–teacher associations to identify challenges within schools. These include gaps in infrastructure, academic performance and overall school management. She also indicated that such engagement is expected to be meaningful and beneficial to the education sector.