Bukola Olamona
|
The differences within  the  executives of the  Ondo State  chapter of the  Parents Teachers Association(PTA) which  had lingered for years has been resolved.

Disclosing this was the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of  Education, Rev, Akin Asaniyan during an interview with  The  Hope in his office.

He said the two factions have decided to sheath their swords and were ready to work for the upliftment of the association and  the success of the education sector in the state.

According to him:” We at the Ministry was  bothered about the differences in the factions of the PTA, and some months ago, we called them to a reconciliatory meeting and that led to the constitution of a committee headed by the  Director of Schools Services and at the meeting where we wanted to channel out visible pathway of peace and mutuality, the other faction said they were no longer interested in fighting, and so they reconciled.

“At least, peace was restored among them after fifteen years of uncertainty,” he added.

He also disclosed that the ministry has mapped out strategy to ensure that PTA levy will now be attached to a particular project, adding that this would be done under strict monitoring.

“One of the key issues we identified was that hence- forth, PTA levy  must be attached to projects and we have mandated the schools services to monitor strictly, that no matter how small those projects are , at least each school in the state can now have that assurance that there will be a project being implemented in  their school, so PTA levy  can not be used irrationally any longer”, he stated.

The Permanent Secretary said the department supervising the association has fashioned out ways to monitor the association for better performance and to ensure that such  crisis no ;longer  occur.

” I think monitoring is important and synergy is important too. If you just leave them on their own, there is the possibility that at a point things will go wrong

I think the supervising department which is Department for School Services is doing a lot there now because gone were those days when anybody could just be PTA executive. You should have a child in the school, so we have set up a panel headed by the Director Schools Services to go and assess all present PTA executives in all the schools to obtain the lists of all the  PTA executives” he said.

He posited that  the constitution of the association has been made available to the ministry which will be a guideline on what is right.

In an interview with The Hope, in Owo,the PTA Chairman, Chief Abimbola Omoloja said the crisis which started when he became the chairman has been resolved and that the other faction has decided to work together with him.

Also, the leader of the other faction, Pastor Olaribigbe said the issue has been amicably resolved and that the State  PTA,  is now one.

    According to him:” all we are trying to do now is to see how the association will move forward, whatever crisis we are  ceating, PTA will live after us , so as an elderly persons we have settled the crisis”.