320 Keta Classrooms Without Teachers

Keta, Volta Region -- If there is anything officials of the Keta district assembly and the district education office find saddening in spite of the numerous developmental projects that are going on in the area, it is the rather snail-like pace at which the basic education sector is seeing the necessary changes.

This is because as the Basic Education Certificate Examination (B.E.C.E) is in progress to select materials for secondary education, a Chronicle investigation in many of the 121 primary and 98 junior secondary schools across the district indicate that 320 classrooms have been without teachers for some years now.

Chronicle stumbled upon this pitiable state of affairs while monitoring the preparedness of children and the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) officials alike. The monitoring was also to sniff around for possible leakages and other malpractices that have bedeviled the country in recent years.

In the Shime area which falls within the flood-prone parts of the district, villages like Sakome, Agorvinu, Lawoshime and Blamezado, primary schools without good furniture and other materials, have only two teachers handling all six classrooms.

At other highly inaccessible settlements like Adzato, Mamime, Aklorfuji and Nyikutor, where vehicular communication is virtually non-existent, the situation is worse. The handful of teachers spotted in some of those areas claim they have to handle as many as three classes each to, as they put it, "make the children go home with something".

Even schools in towns located on higher elevations like Agorte, Tregbui, Tsiame, Atiave, Asadame, Avalavi and Afiadenyigba cannot boast of having the requisite number of teachers.

The situation on the ground suggests that there was no way the pupils could complete their syllabuses at the end of the academic year.

And as to whether parents and guardians are aware of the lamentable state of basic education in a place that was among the first to taste Western tutelage in this country is difficult to tell by this reporter.

But when Chronicle contacted the district director of education, Mr. S.K. Dewortor, for comments he explained that the geographical terrain makes the place unattractive to teachers, and called for something to be done before the situation reaches a crisis level.

The embattled education boss lamented further in an interview: "my brother, I have just returned from a tour of some schools only to meet three letters from teachers on my table requesting to be transferred out of the district," adding that the situation keeps worsening every week.

According to Mr. Dewortor, lack of accommodation and means of transport normally put teachers out of the district. He said very often the frustrated teachers apply for further studies and that is the end of the matter.

Another problem he talked about is the latent mistrust between churches who own the unit schools and the district authorities.

Mentioning the Evangelical Presbyterian (E.P.), Roman Catholic (R.C.) and Salvation Army (S.A.), Mr. Dewortor said church officials do not allow the running of their schools to be streamlined by the education authorities for fear of their schools being taken over by government. This, he said, leads to duplications in the posting of teachers.

He suggested that government should provide motorcycles to teachers, instead of bicycles and construct bungalows close to the schools. These, he said, will act as incentives to keep them there.

In another interview, the chief executive of the Keta district assembly, Emmanuel Kwame Vorkeh, described the 59% average pass recorded last year as unacceptable. He said the assembly had put in place trainee sponsorship programmes which offer modest aids of ?700,000 to indigenes who gain admission into teacher training colleges. They are made to undertake to come back and serve for up to three years after college.

Apart from that an 8.6 kilometre trunk road is being constructed from Agorte to Tregbui to open up the area. Work on the road is expected to be completed by June this year.

Vorkeh suggested that as a temporary measure, government should re-employ retired teachers on contract basis into the empty classrooms. But his suggestion was quickly rejected by Mr. Dewortor who thinks retired teachers are tired and may not be able to withstand any further stress in the classroom.

Therefore, Mr. Dewortor requested that more teachers need to be trained and the job made more attractive to solve the problem permanently.

A caller from Whuti, who gave his name as Theophilus Adelashie, said candidates who ask for help in examination halls do so because they have not been well equipped for the task. He argued that for as long as schools remain in such deplorable states, teachers and parents will hunt for leaked question papers.

Attempts to get the regional director of education failed as he was said to be away on an assignment that would take a week to finish. In a similar vein the Members of Parliament for the area, Hon. Dan Kwasi Abodakpi (Keta) and Hon. James Victor Gbeho (Anlo) could not be reached.

Going by the fact that many public schools take up to 100 children in each classroom, it can easily be estimated that the future of some 30,000 boys and girls is being toyed with on the altar of "no money". This comes at a time when basic education is supposed to be compulsory, free and universal.