Community leaders must treat teachers properly

Keta, Oct 16, GNA - Mr Edward Gbetodeme, Keta Municipal Director of Education, has advised community leaders and assembly members to stop their hostilities towards teachers as well as excessive interference in school affairs in the area.

He said if they continued those negative attitudes they would only end up demoralising the teachers, whose low numbers in the area was one of the reasons of the falling standards.

"Do not arrogate to yourselves the roles of the Director of Education and supervisors of teachers in the schools," he stated. Mr Gbetodeme gave the advice while presenting the area's BECE Performance Chart at an extra-ordinary Executive Committee meeting of the Keta Municipal Assembly convened to discuss ways to reverse the poor performance of students.

Mr Gbetodeme said out of the 462 teachers requested this year, only 56 were posted, adding that, instead of the communities assisting in motivating the few around through the provision of accommodation, for example, they frustrated them unnecessarily. He appealed to religious organizations to sponsor some of their members to train as teachers as they did in past because the Government alone could not shoulder the responsibility. Mr Gbetodeme cited a number of factors, including lack of teacher supervision, low parental and pupil commitment, pupil indiscipline and lack of teacher commitment as part of the problem. Mr Gbetodeme said about 50 percent of pupils from the area end their education at the JHS level, adding that, this year's 50.5 percent pass at the BECE reflected the trend. He said as a remedy, his outfit had planned to post all fresh teachers to the remote areas and to institute a special monitoring team, mock examinations and holiday classes. Mr Sylvester Tornyeava, Keta Municipal Chief Executive, (MCE) said the decline was worrying for many and noted that for high standards to be restored all stakeholders had to complement the Government's efforts.

The meeting adopted the implementation of the Assembly's byelaws on preventing children from funerals and sensitizing the communities on the problem. It also accepted a GHC 1.50 and 50p educational levy per student per term in the SHS and JHS respectively to tackle part of the problem. 16 Oct 11