‘Teachers Community’, an innovation to provide accommodation for teachers in every town and village in the Okere district to advance the cause of education is progressing steadily. So far, four-unit teachers quarters have been completed in six towns and villages in the district including; Dawu, Apirede, Awukugua, Aseseeso, Lakpa and Amahi, while three others at Asikoko, Baware and Okrakwadwo teachers quarters were ongoing.

This came to light when Mr Dan Botwe, Member of Parliament (MP) for Okere, broke the grounds at separate functions for construction of additional four-units teachers quarters each, at Adukrom, Abiriw and Amanfro and Kindergarten blocks at Awukugua, Sanfo-Ano, Asifaw and Nkyenoa. The ‘Teachers Community’ innovation was initiated by Mr Dan Botwe, MP for the area in 2016 with the objective of providing decent accommodation for not less than four teachers and their families in every town or village in the district to form a community of teachers.

Explaining the innovation further, Mr Botwe said the presence of teachers anywhere had impacted on education and ensured discipline among children and therefore the key objective was to provide teachers especially in the rural communities’ conducive living environments to promote good values of education to impact positively on the people.

This innovation, according to Mr Botwe, was feasible and sustainable and recalled that years ago, his father who was a teacher/catechist of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG) enjoyed a similar facility and “that undoubtedly did not only advance the cause of education, but helped in shaping the lives of children and development of the entire community.”

Mr Botwe said “as a son of a teacher/catechist, I am a living testimony of that facility, where in the evenings and throughout the week, our home was opened for all for learning and extra curriculum activities and that benefited the entire community in terms of education and discipline.”

He noted that the creation of ‘teachers community’ was no doubt a critical tool in improving education particularly absenteeism and lateness and thanked the chiefs for buying into the idea and donating lands for the projects.

The MP however charged parents to step up their games in supporting their wards education, adding that “if you fail to play your distinctive roles as parents and guardians, all this efforts of building schools and teacher’s accommodation will not yield the desire results.”

Mr Daniel Kenneth, Okere District Chief Executive (DCE) on his part disclosed that in collaboration with the MP, the District had planned to build a kindergarten in every community to ensure that every child of school going age had access to a school.

He said the District had over 90 satellite communities scattered on the downhill of Adukrom and therefore planned to provide kindergartens as well as schools to reduce the plight of children who had to trek several kilometers to school daily.