Teacher absenteeism has dropped to nine per cent, the National Teaching Council, has announced.

Dr Augustine Tawiah, Executive-Director of the Council, said this is a significant improvement in a country which had over the years recorded 27 per cent teacher absenteeism.

Through its monitoring and evaluation system, the Council had worked tirelessly to scale down teacher absenteeism, dropping the figure initially to 17 per cent, and then there was a further reduction to 11 per cent, before attaining the current figure.

Dr Tawiah, who made the announcement when she addressed this year’s graduation ceremony of the Jackson College of Education in Kumasi, cautioned teachers to discharge their duties in consonance with the ethics of the profession.

“It is sad that teachers mandated to educate our children, supervise and facilitate their career development absent themselves from the classroom,” he stated, and called for attitudinal change.

The ceremony had 1, 836 students graduating and were awarded Diploma in Basic Education certificates, having undergone three years of distance education at the College’s 28 Academic Centres across the country.

This brings to 4, 402, the total number of teachers produced by the College.

Established on the vision of the Jackson’s, two prominent educationists, the College aims to produce a new breed of teachers whose commitment to the teaching profession remained unquestionable.

Dr Tawiah touching on the essence to raise standards in the teaching profession, lauded founders of the College for responding to the needs of the people.

Mrs Theodosia Jackson, Principal of the College, said the teacher trainees are also given leadership training to build their competency in helping them to groom disciplined and all-round responsible citizens and leaders.

She said the actual training and development of the child begins at the classroom, and that there is the need, for the nation to prioritise teacher training education.

When teachers are well resourced, she said, it impacts positively on their performance, noting that her College would not compromise on quality and standards in their programmes.

Nana Adu Mensah Asare, Chief of Amakom, Kumasi, and also an educationist, advised teachers to maintain high moral standards even under challenging situations.