Coronavirus: Teachers refusing shift system because they fear they won't be paid - Kofi Asare

Kofi Asare, the Executive Director of the Africa Education Watch, has stated that one of the reasons teachers continue to teach in classes with student populations of more than 70 in some parts of the country is because they do not want to implement the shift system.

He said that while the Ghana Education Service (GES) recommended 30 students in a class, to better manage large numbers, in the wake of the COVID-19, teachers are resisting attempts to introduce shift systems in these schools because they worry that they will be paid nothing for working in the afternoon.

“We have an average class size of about 70 in schools in Greater Accra and many peri-urban and urban schools across the country. And we have a situation where teachers are resisting attempts to introduce shift systems in these schools because when these attempts are made, they will have to work morning and afternoon with any extra remuneration.

“They are pretending the numbers are manageable when the numbers, obviously, are higher than the 30 that was recommended by the GES when schools reopened last year,” he explained.

Speaking with GhanaWeb, he also expressed his great disappointment in the fact that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said very little on the situation in schools since there have been delays in the supply of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to them.

“Because there is overcrowding in public basic schools in urban areas had been a topical issue in the first two weeks of reopening and the delay in supply to basic schools had also been topical, we were expecting that the president would have made a very emphatic pronouncement and would have charged the Ghana Education Service to fully comply. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any such pronouncements,” he said.