High rent advances create teacher shortage in Akatsi-North

Mr Korto Abielekpor, Headmaster of the Ave-Dakpa RC Basic Schools, has attributed the inability of schools in some deprived communities to attract and retain teachers to the exorbitant rent advances demanded from them.

He said fresh students seeking accommodation in communities to attend Senior High Schools, as day students, were often not spared the cut-throat rent advances.

Mr Abielekpor said this during the commissioning of a GH¢ 41,000 three-room kindergarten GETFUND project for the school at Ave-Dakpa.

He called on local and traditional authorities in these deprived areas to workout schemes to attract teachers and other workers to their localities.

Mr Abielekpor, who did not mention cash amounts demanded, said it was incredible for fresh teachers, who would work two years before being put on the pay roll, to be slapped with such high rent advances.

He entreated community leaders to seek teacher’s welfare alongside demands for infrastructure.

Mr Abielekpor said his school was short of staff and appealed to the government to build living quarters for teachers.

He said the kindergarten block was a big relief, but called for classroom-furniture, computers, extension of potable water and a place of convenience for the school.

Mr James Gunu, Akatsi-North District Chief Executive, who inaugurated the facility to climax a tour of the area, said a shortfall in educational infrastructure was part of the challenges facing the infant district.

Togbe Nyamekor Glakpe, V, Chief of Ave-Dakpa, called for speed ramps, to calm traffic on portions of the Aflao-Ho highway passing through Ave-Dakpa, to stem the frequent road crashes in the area.