Teachers abandon pupils during class hours

Koforidua, Oct. 28, GNA - A Ghana News Agency survey has revealed that some teachers are abandoning the classrooms during class hours to undertake sandwich programmes.

The sandwich programmes, which enable teachers to upgrade themselves academically and professionally, are organized between May and July every year and the teachers have to leave the classrooms for those programmes.

The GNA has also noticed that tertiary institutions that organize these sandwich programmes do not adjust their calendars to suit that of the basic and second cycle schools, thereby “stealing” eight to ten weeks contact period or more in an academic year.

This disturbing situation was revealed at the Koforidua Technical Institute (KOTECH) on Thursday during the opening ceremony of the 27th Conference of the Association of Principals of Technical Institutions (APTI).

Speaking at the function Alhaji Alhassan Umar, the President of APTI, called on stakeholders and the Ministry of Education to check the situation “to safeguard our pupils and students from the 'o teacher in the classroom syndrome'between the months of May and July.”

Alhaji Umar appealed to the government to award minor contracts to the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions in the country to enable them acquire some income to supplement their budgets.

He said in spite of the machines and equipment being used by technical schools that consume a lot of electricity they are collect the same subsidies with senior high schools.

Alhaji Umar emphasized that TVET education would be a mirage in the country if some basic facilities such as training materials and modern equipment were not provided to the TVET institutions, adding that, retraining of the teaching staff to meet developmental and contemporary trends would make TVET realistic in Ghana.