Chief of the Asamankese Traditional area, Osabarima Adu Darko III, has attributed the dwindling performance of teaching and learning in basic schools in his area to shortage of teachers.

He said despite school infrastructure development and materials used to support the education sector, there are lack of teachers across the district.

Osabarima Adu Darko made this statement at the annual Akwasidae festival with the people and elders of Asamankese.

The Chief in his speech noted that the teacher-to-student ratio in the area was appalling.

He was of the view that the situation was, one teacher is assigned a large number of students in a class and made to teach several subjects, which negatively affects the performance of students.

In order to curb the shortage of teachers in the area, Osabarima Adu Darko, appealed to government to urgently intervene by posting more teaching assistants to fill the void.

“We lack teaching assistants in this area. One teacher teaches all subjects in some cases. Others are also assigned to a class of fifty and above so can such teachers monitor the performance and provide effective teaching for the kids. I would appeal to government and all who matter to intervene by posting more teaching assistants to fill the gap,” he noted.

He urged parents to make it a need to participate in all Parent-Teacher Association meetings to help appreciate the performance of their wards and how it could be improved.

“Parents who do not attend Parent-Teacher Association meetings, I have said this repeatedly but some are adamant. Some of these children may not be seen to be performing satisfactorily in class but it doesn’t mean such children are weak. They are not weak, they have learning difficulties and such children need our attention and support".

"There are different category of students. Some of very fast learners, others are slow so for the slow learners, you would have to repeat what you teach them over and over again before it will stick,” he added