Tain District lacks trained teachers

Lack of professional and quality trained teachers in the Tain District is affecting the performance of school children especially at the basic level.

Mr. Paul Amo, secretary of Tain District Parent/Teacher Association (PTA) Network, said this at a stakeholders’ education forum at Nsawkaw to present the outcome of a survey conducted in 13 schools in the district on untrained teachers.

The forum was jointly organised by the Network, ActionAid Ghana and Social Development and Improvement Agency.

Under the theme “Right to quality trained teachers, children in Tain can’t wait any longer,” the forum was attended by parents, teachers, traditional authorities, school children and departmental heads.

Mr. Amo said a survey conducted in 13 schools in the district showed that only 69 out of 183 teachers in the community were professional teachers, with 130 of them being males and 53 females.

He said it was observed that some of the non-professional teachers had not undergone any form of training and most of them did not attend classes as a result of the irregular payment of their allowances.

Mr. Amo said about 80 children were found in a class room in one of the communities with an untrained teacher.

Mr. Amo called on the Assembly to provide training and implement scholarship schemes for teacher trainees.

He suggested that allowances should be paid regularly to ensure teachers were punctual and also to provide teachers’ accommodation in deprived communities.

Mr. Andrews Nizelle of Ghana Education Service (GES) stated that, in 2011 and 2012, percentage trained teachers at the Kindergarten level was 9.87%, Primary 48.4%, Junior High level 75% and Senior High level 65.0%.

Performance at the Basic Education Certificate Examination dropped from 64.05% in 2009 to 64% in 2010 and 54.60% last year; males’ percentage pass at JHS dropped from 68% in 2009 to 56.57% in 2011 whilst the females’ percentage pass dropped from 59% in 2009 to 44.2% in 2011.

The pupil teacher ratio at the KG is 39:1, primary 34:1, JHS 19:1 and SHS 16:1 above the 1:25 for nursery and 1:35 at primary.

Mr. Kwame Afram Denkyira, ActionAid Programme Officer for Education, urged all stakeholders to work together to ensure every child enjoyed the right to quality education and called on the Assembly to redouble efforts to reverse the worrying trend of increasing number of school drop outs in the district.**