National Parent-Teacher Association of Jamaica (NPTAJ) President Stewart Jacobs wants school principals to cease bombarding PTA meetings in an effort to silence and intimidate members.

According to Jacobs, far too often he has seen school administrators seek to control the body’s operations and, in doing so, hamper its effectiveness.

“They come to PTA meetings and they hog the microphone, they hog the show and the PTA presidents are a bit intimidated, and so they simply just walk away because they can’t be bothered,” Jacobs told the Jamaica Observer.

“There are some principals who are so stubborn. Even at the election [for PTA executives], I have to kind of put them in their place and say, ‘No, Madam Principal, or no, Mr Principal, this is not your meeting. This is the meeting of the PTA, and it is the president of the PTA that has called this meeting and has the jurisdiction over this meeting, not you’,” he said.

Jacobs said he has also seen instances of principals selecting their own PTA executive members, describing it as wrong, because the PTA executive must be chosen by the parents and teachers of the school.

“What we do is, we try our best to teach and educate, but it doesn’t go around our borders, because there is resistance by some school administrators. There are some administrators who refuse to give up the role of treasurer to anyone, but a teacher, so you have one teacher being re-selected as the treasurer for the PTA over and over again, and so there are issues with the dispensation of funds to the PTA, for the PTA to use it as they want to,” he told the Sunday Observer.

The president further added that some schools refuse to use the NPTAJ Constitution to guide administrators on how to structure a PTA and, in doing so, create an ineffective body that often collapses.

He said currently most high schools across the island have a fully functioning PTA, while early childhood, primary, and rural institutions are said to sometimes have an ineffective PTA body or none at all.

Jacobs also said that in addition to interference from school administrators, some of the issues facing PTAs are that many parents are too busy to participate, or simply do not know the role of the PTA, so they are reluctant to join.

Explaining the role of the PTA, he said there are three main pillars — to support all the mandates of the school administration from the board to the principal’s office; to seek infrastructural development of the school; and to make more robust the financial undertakings of the school.

“If the school has a mantra or an operational plan, they are to be a part of the mantra or the operational plan to ensure that it is done,” Jacobs said, stressing that fund-raising or planning events should never be the sole purpose of the body.

He said that to create more effective PTAs he has visited several schools to meet with principals and advise them on how to form an effective PTA, often attending meetings and providing guidance.

Stressing the importance of the constitution, Jacobs said he has seen instances of PTAs being revived when parents and teachers are properly educated on their roles and functions.

“Principals will sometimes call me and say, ‘Mr Jacobs, after six months I am seeing the difference. Thank you, because I’ve seen where the roles and functions, when it is explained, it is better,” he shared.

“One of the things that we are going to be doing is to revise the current constitution that we have and share it with all principals, to meet with principals and to ask them to kindly allow this process to take place. We plan to show them that it will make the school much more effective if they have an effective PTA that is being managed under these structures,” he added.

Jacobs further called on school administrators to reach out to the NPTAJ if they have issues stabilising their PTA groups.

Noting the current observation of National Parent Month, he also urged parents to get involved, noting that their contribution is vital.

“When you get involved in a PTA, you see that you have become an extended village to other children and you see your child benefiting from the infrastructural development and the administration help and the financial gain that you have given to the school,” said Jacobs.

“The benefit is not going to be almost immediate, but you will see the benefit before your child leaves school. It is a good thing to extend yourself and give of yourself so others can benefit from it,” he stressed.