The Zero-Tolerance for Teacher Absenteeism policy adopted by the Ministry of Education to enhance accountability, and increase teacher presence as well as time on desk in schools has yielded positive results.

After three years of its implementation, the rate of teacher absenteeism has declined from 27 per cent in 2012 to seven per cent in 2016.

Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, Minister of Education, who announced this in Accra, said the ministry would continue to champion the course until the rate of teacher absenteeism is brought to zero.

She said after she and her team had initiated surprise visits to countless schools throughout the country at first hand; and, additionally, the National Inspectorate Board and the Ghana Education Service were resourced to intensify both external and internal monitoring in basic schools, among many other functions.

She, therefore, commended various stakeholders, including teachers, the teacher unions, traditional authorities, district education officers, and the parents who supported the ministry to achieve the result.

“I wish to thank everyone for their cooperation which has helped improve the image of our cherished profession,” she added.

On In-Service Education and Training Programme, the minister said, in the four-year period, a total of 12, 085 Mathematics and 2387 Science teachers across the country were trained.

Prof Opoku-Agyemang said in addition, 5,626 non-core subject teachers and 5,923 Heads from Public Basic Schools in the 75 deprived districts and low-performing schools (public and private) also received training as well in the ensuring year.

“In our effort to accelerate ICT education at the basic education level, 81,000 basic school teachers have been trained since 2013 to enable them to acquire the requisite skills in the use of ICT to facilitate teaching and learning.

“A total number of 54,500 laptops were procured and distributed to basic school teachers, and 60,000 laptop computers were distributed to public basic schools across the country,” she said.

The Minister said in order to strengthen governance of educational institutions to improve efficiency of education service delivery, the Ministry had over the past two years embarked on a process to review the legal and regulatory framework of some of its agencies.

To date, three bills, namely: Technical University Act, 2016 (Act 992); University of Environment and Sustainable Development Act, 2015 (Act 898), and Chartered Institute of Taxation Act, 2016 (Act 916) have been passed into Acts of parliament and accented by the President.

Prof Opoku-Agyemang announced that Tertiary Education Research Fund Bill had also been approved by Cabinet and is currently before Parliament for Consideration while Ghana Book Development Council Bill was currently at the Attorney General’s Department.