Saltpond (C/R), March 16, GNA - An appeal has gone to the Electoral Commission, the Statistical Service and other data gathering institutions to schedule their activities which involve the services of teachers to coincide with school holidays.
Miss Vivian Etroo, Assistant Director in charge of Supervision at the Mfantseman District Directorate of Education, who made the appeal said when exercises like registration of voters, inspection of voters' register and population census were conducted whilst schools were in session the schools calendar was thrown out of gear.
In this particular voters registration exercise, Miss Etroo felt the Electoral Commission should have trained unemployed university graduates, graduates of the tertiary institutions and the senior secondary schools to handle the exercise as the JSS teachers were preparing the third year students for their final Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) which would take off on April, 19. Speaking to Ghana News Agency at Saltpond Miss Etroo said involving the unemployed in such exercises would also earn them some income, which they could use to prepare for themselves for employment or admission for further studies.
She said since the recruitment of teachers for the registration exercise was not channelled through the district directorates some of the JSS teachers who should have been in the classroom to prepare the children for the BECE had deserted them because of the additional income the exercise would fetch them.
"There is hue and cry about the poor performance of students in the country and we would be worsening the already bad situation if we sacrifice the pupils' learning for other national exercises," she said adding that "we have just celebrated our 47th independence anniversary which consumed much of the students' time in preparation towards it."
