RE: Harassment and embarrassment of students at St. Rose's SHS - Attention Minister of Education and Director General of GES!

There have been some interesting developments and comments to my earlier publication on St. Rose’s SHS. These have necessitated a follow-up publication. I must emphasize that the main reason for the publication in spite of my reluctance to write on the matter is:

Pasting of the names of students whose parents are in arrears for PA levies in the classrooms. This is an embarrassment to the young girls. Without a doubt, those students whose names are on the debtors list pasted in their classrooms with the amount in arrears would be feeling ashamed and embarrassed. Also, the issue of parents (PA) paying salaries of Ghc 12,000 a month for teachers and with plans to add more.

Besides these two main issues, listening to some of the lamentations by parents in the audio voice messages on the PA platform is quite disturbing. In one of the voice audios, a parent is lamenting that the kind of treatments being meted out to their daughters, they'll never have a good memory of the school when they leave, and would never want to have anything to do with the school or support the school in the future if need be.

In another audio, a parent is lamenting that her daughter starts crying when it’s time for her to go back to school. The night before leaving for school, she cries all-night. “Mummy, I don’t want to go to school…” In another audio by another parent: “Mummy, pray for my sanity…” I therefore wish to emphasise that, the focus of my publication is not the PA levies as it appears to be.

As always, what motivates me to write are:

• Exposing societal issues or problems

• Professing solutions

So, in the afternoon of Monday June 3rd, when I found out that my article on St. Rose's SHS had been published, I shared it on various platforms. Not long after, a senior colleague on a writers’ platform commented after reading:

"Free SHS indeed. I hope the powers that be will read and act promptly. Thanks Max. You have done your patriotic duty."

My joy at being commended for a patriotic duty was short-lived. Few minutes after, I had calls from two old students of St. Rose's. They were both unhappy with my publication. One of them, an executive of the Old Students Association, explained that its 20 years since they left St. Rose's, and are busily planning a legacy project for their beloved Alma Mater. They are therefore unhappy seeing such a publication.

Later in the evening, the PA Chairman of St Rose's SHS also called. He praised me for my article. He said he likes my writing. He told me he watched my interview with Ameyaw Debrah in London, my interview with Kwaku Sintim Misa (KSM), and my job interview with the Bank of Ghana. I was thrilled at the revelation that PA chair had been my admirer and follower for a long time. My interview with Ameyaw Debrah in London is over a decade ago. “It’s a small world,” I exclaimed.

PA chair further said that the Board Chair of St. Rose's had read my publication and was not pleased. PA chair also said he wished I had contacted him prior to the publication. We spoke at length. PA chair debunked some of the issues raised in the article. He proposed that I do some editing of the article or pull it down. He also said that he could pull down the article and I would not be able to publish on the portal henceforth. But because he likes my writing, he wouldn't do that. He’d rather give me the opportunity to do it myself.

In fact, I became convinced with PA chair's narration of the issues. He told me he's a Reverend at Royal House Chapel. That endeared him to me the more as I don't take my reverence for God lightly. We spoke for long. I told Reverend I'd call him the next day in the morning for us to discuss resolution as he had requested of me – edit or pull down the article.

Before going to bed, I decided to do some further checks. What I was told again sharply contrast with Reverend’s. I decided I would no longer call Reverend in the morning as I had promised him. I'd wait and see what Reverend would do if he doesn’t hear from me. Well, at exactly 11:15 in the morning, PA chair got in touch with me on WhatsApp.

Disclosure: My publication on St. Rose’s SHS has become a public interest story. I’ve been informed that it has been shared on the Education Committee of Parliament platform, and has generated a lot of discussion. As a result, I’ve decided to publish my chats with the PA chair. It has also come to my attention that the PA chair has published a rejoinder on citinewsroom.com, dailyguidenetwork.com and africapublicity.com to my earlier publication on Ghanaweb and Modernghana.com.

For ease of reference, I've decided to number our chats:

1. PA chair: Hi max. Good morning. How are you doing?

2. Me: Hello Reverend. Good morning. By grace I'm doing good. Please how about yourself and family?

3. PA chair: We are fine by his grace o. What is your update now on the publication?

4. Me: Hmmm! Reverend, there seems to be something wrong somewhere.

5. PA chair: Ok. Let me know what it is.

6. Me: Apparently, the pasting of names of students whose parents are in arrears was done as recently as the very past week... Probably on Wednesday or Thursday.

7. Me: Meanwhile, you assured me that it was done previously, and when the parents objected to it, it was stopped...

8. PA chair: I verified that this morning too and the financial secretary told me he pasted it. But according to him, it was to update them so they can contact parent. It was done just when they requested they wanted to know if it’s been paid.

9. Me: That is in direct contradiction of the GES guidelines.

10. PA chair: PTA has the right to levy and support the school. We had lots of parents who were having same opinion.

11. Me: That's not in contention, Sir... But the pasting of names of students whose parents are in arrears is against the GES guidelines. It's an embarrassment to the young girls, Sir...

12. PA chair: I don’t think the intention is to embarrass but to serve as evidence of payment.

At this stage, I shared a screenshot of pages 6 and 7 of the GES guidelines with Reverend; to which he quickly responded "I have this."

13. Me: Point no. 5. The practice of pasting names is a direct breach of the guidelines...

14. PA chair: Remember we are not saying that they are owing. Is it a good thing paying for tuition for them for months without letting them go out. Look at the positives. No one has been prevented from participating in any activity made possible by PTA. You are not focusing on the positive things. I don’t think the intention is to affect them psychologically. Not at all.

15. Me: But that exactly is what is happening to them.

16. PA chair: You are totally wrong. Cos I we speak to them.

17. Me: Wow! Why would they be reporting such to their parents if it's not affecting them negatively?

18. PA chair: Yesterday as soon as I got to know it was pasted I instructed it to be removed. You see I gave you the exact update.

At this this stage, Reverend went back and tagged one of my old statements (no. 7);

Me: Meanwhile, you assured me that it was done previously, and when the parents objected to it, it was stopped... Reverend: It was to be done not it was done

19. Reverend: When you are getting more parents commending you for a good job done definitely you will get those in the minority to go against it. It’s normal. It’s a system and we must strive to make things better. Correct what went wrong and make things better. I believe in obeying rules.

For the second time, Reverend went back and tagged my old statement (no. 7) again, with yet another response;

Me: Meanwhile, you assured me that it was done previously, and when the parents objected to it, it was stopped...

Reverend: I didn’t say it was done previously. I said upon discussion we decided not to paste. Not that it has been pasted before. I think you didn’t understand what I said

Well, at this stage, I also decided to go back and tag one of Reverend's old statements (no. 8) and query him further:

Reverend: I verified that this morning too and the financial secretary told me he posted it

Me: Please, who is the financial secretary? Is he a teacher at the school?

20. Reverend: I won’t talk about this matter again. I think I know just what to do. It’s a lesson learnt for serving parents from the heart. PTA has minutes to every decision made. Let me ask you this question. Who will suffer if I ask the teacher to leave? I love the children than what those parents think. Ask those parents to think about it. I have nothing to lose but my conscience will not allow me to do that. And as a good citizen I will not allow it to happen. I rest my case.

Well, Reverend had suddenly called it a day. My next question would have been: Who authorised the financial secretary to go round the classrooms and paste the names of debtors, with an ultimatum to pay by Friday the 31st of May?

My final word to Reverend was a prayer emoji, to which Reverend also replied with an emoji.

It’s clear from my chats with Reverend that the PA financial secretary is a teacher at the school, another breach of the GES guidelines. Personally, I’ve reservations against the latter day PA, as against the former PTA. But since I don’t know what went into the decision to outlaw PTA for PA, I won’t be in a position to comment further.

Well, I’m pleased that my publication has made some impact as executives of the Old Students Association have decided to engage with the school authorities over some of the issues raised in my publication they deem wrong and unacceptable. Also, for the PA chair to have instructed the financial secretary to remove the debtors lists that were pasted in the classrooms only a few days ago. And finally, I do hope that government will quickly step in to resolve the problem of shortage of teachers at “my beloved” St. Rose’s SHS.

The other day, I saw a comment from one Dr. on my article on a platform: "You wrote it? I'm old St. Rose's student. I forwarded it to people in power... Kudos to you."

If there arises the need for a 3rd publication, I’ll write about my decades-long love for St. Rose’s, and why I chose St. Rose’s as first choice for my daughter three years ago.

Long live St. Rose's!

Maxwell Maundy,

Author/Writer/Columnist.