Retired Education Directors of Upper East Region have advocated for integration of teaching practice for teacher trainees within the three-year training period and not after the training so as to enable proper evaluation of content and methodology at every level.

They said a sandwiched practice and training of teachers provided adequate capacity building for the trainees as against out of school practice which did not allow trained teachers to return to school for evaluation.

The retired educators made the appeal at a press conferences held in Bolgatanga to discuss challenges facing education in the region.

Mr Robert Ajene, a retired Regional Director of Education, said the quality of teachers for basic schools was appalling and that much as methodology was vital in classroom delivery, the teacher required adequate preparation in terms of content to handle every aspect of the basic school curriculum.

Mr Ajene said rapid changes in the Educational Policy of Teacher Trainees did not augur well for the development of education and that contributed to poor performance of teachers.

He said changes in policy in terms of content and duration affected educational development so such policies needed to be entrenched to last for at least 10 years.

He commended the Teacher Rationalization Policy and urged directors to pursue it irrespective of their political affiliation and advocated for government incentives to go with it.

He said the push for use of Ghanaian Languages at basic school had not had the desired effect in the region since Kassem was the only approved examinable language.

Mr Ajene expressed worry that over 80 per cent of pupils did not write any Ghanaian language as their counterparts in other regions and that since Gurune cuts across a large sector of the region the language should be considered.

As past education directors they would not renege on their responsibilities in lending support to the regional education directorate to ensure that education received best attention in the region, he said, and pledged their support to the regional director of education who participated in the meeting.

Mr Emmanuel Samba Zumerkpeh, Regional Director of Education, in response to the inclusion of Ghanaian language in basic education, revealed that Gurune and Kussal languages had been approved by government.

He said though there might be teachers to teach the Gurune Language, deficiency of instructors in Kusaal was a challenge and,therefore, the need to get teachers trained in the language to teach it effectively.