Teacher Absenteeism high in Central Gonja District

Yapei (N/R), Jan. 12, GNA - High level of teacher absenteeism in some parts of the Central Gonja District, particularly in the Kusawgu circuit in the Northern Region, is affecting academic performance in schools in the area. Most of the teachers in the district stay in the district capital and commute to the villages because of the lack of accommodation and other social amenities in the rural areas.

Alhaji Yakubu Ibrahima, the District Director of Education, said thi= s at the President's end-of-year party for school children in Yapei in the Central Gonja District on Tuesday.

He said as a result of the teacher absenteeism, there was also a lo= t of truancy on the part of the children who also fail to attend school regularly. Alhaji Ibrahima said as part of measures to instil discipline in th= e schools, the District Directorate of Education had intensified its supervision and monitoring role to ensure that teachers stayed at post and discharged their duties diligently.

Mr. Issifu Salisu Be-awuribe, the District Chief Executive of Central Gonja, said as part of governments efforts to expand educational facilities in the district, between 2009 and 2010, some 41 schools under trees had being converted into proper school buildings adding that out of these, three of them were constructed by the GETFund. He said the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs was also developing policies aimed at enhancing the welfare of children while ensuring that child trafficking and other child abuses were stopped. Miss. Sherifa Zakaria, a pupil, who read a message to the Presiden= t on behalf of the school children appealed to the President to provide adequate reading and learning materials to schools to improve upon the quality of learning in schools. The children also urged government to continue to pursue its policy of constructing better classrooms accommodation to replace the schools under trees.

The school children further called on government to as soon as possible migrate their teachers unto the single spine salary structure to motivate them to put in their best in class. 12 Jan 11

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