Alhaji A.B.A. Fuseini, the Deputy Northern Regional Minister, has decried the unbalanced distribution of trained teachers in the Region, saying it was affecting quality education delivery.

He said urban schools in the Region had excess number of teachers compared to schools in rural areas who had an inadequate number of teachers handling pupils in overcrowded classrooms.

Alhaji Fuseini said this at a meeting between members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education and officials from the Sagnarigu District Directorate of Education at Sagnarigu on Monday to deliberate on issues affecting quality education delivery in the district.

The meeting, which was held at the behest of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education as part of its monitoring visits to selected districts across the country, is to come out with action plans to arrest the fallen standard of education in the district and the region.

Other stakeholders who attended the meeting included circuit supervisors, representatives of school management committees, head teachers, teachers, parent/ teacher associations, service providers, students and pupils.

Alhaji Fuseini said the unbalanced distribution of teachers across the region was impacting negatively on quality education delivery in the Region since some students and pupils in rural areas were not receiving quality tuition compared to their counterparts in urban schools.

He also attributed the fallen standard of education in the Region to unprofessional attitudes of some teachers, who drank alcohol even during school hours thereby failing to adequately discharge their duties as teachers.

He said the Region had assumed the unenviable record of placing last in the recent Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) and called on all stakeholders to do their best to improve the situation.

Mr Puozaa Mathias, Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education, said the falling standard of education was a concern to the committee and expressed hope that action plans to be developed from the meeting would help to reverse the situation.

Mr Alhassan Mohammed Sorugudoo, the District Chief Executive for Sagnarigu, expressed the hope that the on-going teacher redeployment exercise would help ensure equitable distribution of teachers to improve education delivery.

He said even though the Sagnarigu District recorded 62 per cent at the last BECE, there was a need to put in more efforts to further improve the situation.