Tamale Metropolis has over 1,000 teacher excesses

ActionAid Ghana (AAG), a human rights non-governmental organization, has expressed worry about the alarming teacher excesses in the Tamale Metropolis and the Sagnarigu district, stressing that the excess teachers needed to be re-posted or transferred to serve deprived communities.

Alhaji Mohammed Yakubu Saani, Deputy Country Director of AAG said the Sagnarigu district has 618 excess teachers, while the Tamale Metropolis has over 500 excess teachers, and that the situation deprived many districts and rural communities of adequate teachers, hence the worsening academic performances.

Alhaji Saani was addressing some District Chief Executives in Tamale on Tuesday to solicit their collaboration in attempts to speed up development of the districts and rural parts of Ghana.

The meeting was also to create opportunities for the NGO and the DCEs to brainstorm on alternative strategies that would go a long way to improve holistic development.

Alhaji Saani explained that AAG works in areas of right to education, education governance, women rights, and alleged witches issue; saying that they were the heartbeat of the NGO and that many attempts were being made to improve their lives.

He observed that many women were left behind in societal progress because of their weak economic base, and stressed the need for women to be empowered economically to enable them contribute meaningfully to their communities.

Alhaji Saani also called for the passage of a Legislative Instrument (LI) on the domestic violence law to ensure that implementation of the law was made efficient, effective and workable. He explains that the current conditions complicate the full implementation of that law.

Mr. Sumaila Abdul-Rahman, Country Director of ActionAid Ghana, suggested to the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), to adopt innovative, simple and cost efficient means to improve development of their areas, instead of waiting for capital intensive projects.

He observed that the country had been lagging behind in many developmental aspects, because stakeholders, including Assemblies, had been waiting for capital intensive means before embarking on development; noting that simple technologies with small capital could improve rural growth and development.

Mr. Abdul-Rahman was of the view that the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions had peculiar problems of poverty and other teething issues, which did not necessarily need huge capital to address.

He said the conventional capital intensive means of development or execution of projects had resulted in many projects left uncompleted or remained at the bottom of the ladder, and stressed the need for development to still go on with inadequate capital.

Mr. Abdul-Rahman said the regional development strategies should direct the focus of development at the various Assemblies, and urged them to be development-oriented.

Later, the NGO held a meeting with the Deputy Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji A.B.A Fuseini on varied issues, during which the minister described the 2013 BECE performances in the regions as catastrophic.

He also lamented about the continuous practice of confining people in witches’ camps, and suggested for a multi-faceted approach in dealing with the phenomenon.