Government urged to attach social workers to schools

Government has been called upon to make social work an integral part of the education system in an effort to improve upon students’ academic performances.

This is because, the social worker has been trained to help identify students or people with psycho-social issues, such as learning disabilities, poor performances, absenteeism, bullying and others.

Speaking at the opening of the fifth International School Social Work conference held in Accra on Tuesday, Mrs Esther Mahama, President, School Social Work Association of Ghana, urged government to endeavour to consult social workers in the drawing of curriculum in the schools for their inputs.

“Social workers are supposed to be staff of our schools so that, as the teacher teaches, the social worker would handle other psycho-social issues faced by the students”, she added.

She expressed concern about the unavailability of jobs for students of social work, which caused them to seek job opportunities in other sectors.

Nowadays due to limited social work institutions, trained social workers are compelled to seek job opportunities from organizations such as the banks and telecommunication companies.

The three day conference, which was on the theme "Ensuring Quality Education for All the World’s Children,” was attended by over 170 social workers from countries such as India, South Korea, United Kingdom and Nigeria.

Dr Kofi Ohene Konadu, Lecturer, Faculty of Social Work, University of Ghana, appealed to government to extend the needed assistance to the profession for the country to derive the maximum benefits.

“We do not see the works of social workers because we do not have social institutions in the country for our graduates”.**