Nkawie (Ash), Oct 15, GNA - The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and the Ghana Education Service (GES) in close collaboration with the district assemblies and other development partners are pursuing rural centered education development programmes to reverse the disparities between the urban and rural schools.

The rural centered programmes include the construction and rehabilitation of school infrastructure, supply of adequate teaching and learning materials and the provision of incentive packages such as bicycles, music systems, radios, cooking utensils, television sets, gas cookers and cylinders, refrigerators, standing fans and mattresses.

This was made known by Mr Eddy Obeng-Darko, Atwima District Director of Education, at a two-day orientation workshop for 128 new trained teachers posted to the district this academic year on Thursday. Mr Obeng-Darko said the GES had instituted a special dispensation for two years instead of three years for the rural teachers to qualify for study leave with pay to pursue tertiary education.