A total of 52 teachers; 31 males and 21 females have left the Jasikan Municipality as of July 31, 2024, as against 33 in 2023 and another 33 in 2022.

While 34 are on release, 17 are on study leave with pay, and one for other reasons.

Mr. Isaac Midodzi, Planning Officer at the Jasikan Municipal Directorate of the Ghana Education Service (GES), disclosed this at the stakeholders’ engagement on the teacher retention challenges programme at the Jasikan Diocesan Information and Counseling Centre, Nsuta-Buem in the Jasikan Municipality of the Oti Region.

On the inflow of teachers, he said, 80 were posted as of July 2024, 45 in 2023, and 57 in 2022.

Mr Midodzi, who did a presentation on, “Situational Analysis on Teacher Retention in Jasikan Municipality” on behalf of the Municipal Director of Education, said a total of 858 teachers were currently serving in the municipality, and that while 103 were handling KGs, 283 were in-charge of Primary, 235 in JHS and 237 teaching in SHS.

He said the municipality had a student enrollment of 16,676 students; including 8,580 boys and 8,096 girls as of July 31, 2024, and that while the KG population was 2,172, Primary enrollment was 6,680, JHS had 3,077 students and SHS had 4,747 student population.

On the Pupil-Teacher Ratio, the Planning Officer said KG 22:1, Primary 24:1, JHS 14:1 and SHS 21:1.

“Drawing from the data shows that the teacher retention rate in Jasikan Municipality is high, that is, 94% as of July 2024. However, there are some schools without teachers, especially hard-to-reach areas”, he said.

A participant, who wanted to remain anonymous told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the teacher situation in the Oti Region may not necessarily mean teacher retention or teacher attrition, but re-distribution of teachers in the region as proportion distribution favours urban over rural.

He said powerful people wanted their wives and children who are teachers to teach in the urban centres making some schools in urban areas overstaffed while the rural schools needed them.