‘Teacher absenteeism worrying’

The Minister of Education, Professor Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang, has paid a surprise visit to some public basic schools in the Central Region during which she met empty classrooms, and general disorder, in some of the schools.

The visit was to enable the minister to know the real situation that pertained in the schools. It also formed part of the Ministry of Education’s effort to ensure that public schools performed better in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
Prof. OpokuAgyemang was worried about teacher absenteeism, as it tended to be one of the contributory factors to the unusually appalling performance of pupils in the BECE in the region.

Empty classrooms
The tour took the minister and her entourage to the Pedu M/A Primary School where she met empty classrooms, with students gallivanting around 8.30 a.m. when they got to the school. Six teachers were absent.
According to the headmistress of the school, Madam Sarah Efua Bosomtwe, the students were not in class because they had been sacked for non-payment of a GH¢2 Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) levy.
She explained that they were collecting the money to construct a shed for food vendors who sold to the students and also maintain the school.
That, Professor Opoku Agyemang said was wrong, adding that “the PTA has the right to propose the amount but not to charge or impose it on pupils”.
She added that the PTA dues should not be used as the basis to sack students from the classroom.

Report on PTA
Prof. Opoku Agyemang tasked the Central Regional Director of Education, Mr Joseph Daagor Kor, to present a report on how the PTA dues were being used in the schools.
She was worried about the inability of circuit supervisors to undertake the effective supervision of the schools.
At the St Nicholas Anglican Primary, the headmaster, Mr Samuel Spio Gabrah, said he had queried the absentee teachers for constantly refusing to come to school.

Students’ absenteeism
The third school she visited was Amanful’s St Joseph Catholic Boys’ School where students absenteeism was the major concern.
The headmistress, Madam Prudence Amissah Arthur, said the school faced theft and sanitation problems.
Prof. Opoku Agyemang urged the teachers to desist from using canes often, saying it made school unattractive.

Indiscipline
At the Sacred Heart Catholic Basic School, some of the female teachers had left their babies for the pupils to take care of them.
Also, some trained teachers had abandoned their classes for the trainee teachers who were on study mentorship programmes.
Prof. Opoku Agyemang said they could not bring their babies to the classrooms as it had the tendency of interfering with their job.
“If this is how you carry yourselves, then it is not a surprise that Central Region performs abysmally”, she lamented over the act of teachers’ indiscipline.
At the Sacred Heart School, Prof. Opoku Agyemang seized a cane from one student whom a teacher had empowered to cane his colleagues should they go wrong.