Regional News of Friday, 12 March 2010

Source: GNA

Abutia-Kpota lacks teachers

Abutia-Kpota (V/R), March 12, GNA - Kindergarten pupils at Abutia-Kpota Evangelical Presbyterian Basic School near Ho have been without a teacher since last academic year. The only teacher attending to the over 80 pupils was transferred last year. This came to light when some officials from the Volta Regional Coordinating Council and the Ghana Education Service visited the school to find out if pupils at the school had received the government's free exercise books.

Mr Raphael Akorli, the Headteacher of the School, said teachers posted to the school had refused to take their postings even though the community was ready to provide them with accommodation. He said the Primary School currently has only four teachers and three teachers for the Junior High School. Mr Akorli said the situation was seriously affecting teaching and learning with pressure on the few teachers. "For instance our best grade in the last BECE was aggregate 20," he said.

Some traditional rulers who were deliberating on the issue before the monitoring team arrived appealed to the Ghana Education Service to help resolve the problem. The community leaders identified the absence of electricity and good road to the community as factors preventing teachers from accepting postings to the area and appealed to the government to help provide these facilities. All the JHS pupils at the school received the free exercise books.