Teachers and staff of Achimota Preparatory School (APS) are agitated about a letter from the Ghana Education Service (GES) Greater Accra Regional Office informing them of the takeover of the premises of the school by the GES.
In a letter cited by Happyfmghana.com and signed by the Greater Accra Regional Director of Education, the reported takeover of the premises of APS will take place on 27th January 2020 following a meeting held between parties on the 23rd December 2019. Teachers from GES will be posted to the school to assume the duties of current teachers who are mainly private and in addition, government policies applicable to public schools shall be applied to the management of the school. The letter states “parents are to be informed that personnel from the Ghana Education Service (GES) shall be posted to the school. There is, therefore, no need for any pupil/student to be withdrawn from the school”.
However, current management of the school rejects the GES directive and, in response, dated 31st December 2019, they challenged the decision of GES by insisting that the school is not a public school and therefore cannot be taken over by the government. Portions of the letter state “APS is not a public school and it is certainly not Government policy to go about taking over private properties. Your office has no right to assume management of a school in which it is not a party to and which is not subvented by Government”.
It is still unclear the exact reasons for the takeover but according to Mr. Wisdom Attah; an Interim Management Committee member of the school, there has been no discussions and proper transition with the over 50 teachers and administrative staff of the school to know their fate. He said “This school is over 70 years and contributed to the development of this nation. Teachers are already working there and you have not discussed with the over 50 staff of the school to know their fate. We are Ghanaians and pay taxes and therefore must be treated with fairness”.
Mr. Attah added that management of the school has issued a notice to commence legal proceedings against the GES and has invited the media to an urgent press conference on 24th January to address all and sundry with respect to the takeover and position of the school.
Copies of cited letters below.