The Wa East District Administrator for Human Resources at the Ghana Education Service, Mr Adam Jamal-Deen has expressed concern about the refusal of teachers to accept postings to the area.
The action, he said has led to a shortage of teachers in the area and the Upper West Region at large.
Mr Jamal -Deen indicated that, majority of trained teachers did not accept postings to the district as a result of the deprived nature of the area, and that the few teachers who were in the district were also looking for ways to exit to other areas.
Mr Jamal-Deen revealed this at District’s maiden “meet the press” series held on Tuesday at Funsi.
He lamented that the population of students were above 27,000, yet the district had only 795 teachers in the district, Early this year he said, 51 teachers in the district took study leave with pay and 54 of them also took a release from the district.
“I had had to send a teacher who is a native out of the community because he consistently complained about the limited infrastructure and opportunities in the district. In the end, I was compelled to transfer him out of the district,” he said.
Mr Jamal – Deen stated that, cited the situation of a hard-to-reach community in the district named Chassie where there was only one teacher in the primary school and said teachers who were posted to that area always refused to stay.
Mr Jamal-deen also revealed that, some schools in the district were in deplorable state and did not promote teaching and learning among the students and teachers.
The District Chief Executive, Mr Moses Jotie for his part, highlighted that the total school enrollment for the 2016/2017 academic year, before the implementation of the free Senior high school stood at 670 and enrolment after the roll out of the free SHS for the 2017/2018 academic year increased the student population to 824, stating that, there had been a 22 per cent increase in enrollment.
The DCE said, the Assembly had done a lot to improve on the performance of students at the basic level so that these children could take up the opportunity of having free education at the senior high level.
The Assembly, Mr Jotie said, had supported the District Office of Ghana Education Service to organise annual district-wide mock for the BECE candidates for the past three years now.
FROM RAFIA ABDUL-RAZAK, FUNSI
