By Anthony Adongo Apubeo
Bolgatanga, March 04, GNA – Many public Basic Schools in the Upper East Region do not have trained early childhood education teachers, the Upper East Regional Childhood Development Committee has revealed.
According to the Committee, the situation which spreads across the 15 Municipal and Districts in the region, was particularly worrying at the kindergarten level and significantly affecting early childhood education, activities and development.
The Committee revealed that in many schools there were not enough teachers, compelling one teacher to handle many children while in some schools the teachers posted there did not have any training in early childhood education and development.
“At the Sapeliga KG for instance, the classroom was congested with about 195 children with only one caretaker,” Mrs. Georgina Aberese-Ako, Regional Coordinator of the Committee revealed this at the 2025 first quarter meeting of the Committee in Bolgatanga.
The Committee is made up of stakeholders drawn from the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council, Departments of Gender, Children and Social Welfare, Ghana Education Service, Ghana Health Service, Environment and Sanitation Unit, civil society organisation, traditional leaders among others.
The Committee, therefore, appealed to the government to specially treat the case of the Upper East Region with the urgency it deserved and post more early childhood development teachers to the region to help address the challenge.
Additionally, Mrs Aberese-Ako, who is also the Acting Upper East Regional Director of the Department of Children, said children at many basic schools continued to learn under dilapidated conditions due to poor infrastructure, particularly at nursery and kindergarten levels mostly described as ‘death-traps’.
Some schools had leaked roofs, with their doors and windows broken with pupils lying on their bellies to learn due to lack of furniture, exposing the children to pneumonia and other cold related diseases.
The schools did not also have Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) facilities, compelling the pupils to defecate and urinate in the open.
Mrs Aberese-Ako explained that the Committee discovered that there persists inadequate teaching and learning materials in most basic schools in the region which situation was adversely affecting teaching and learning in the schools.
She said early childhood education was the foundation to the development of children and appealed to the government and other organisations to help provide a decent learning environment to support early childhood education and development.
Mr. John Nyaaba, the Upper East Regional Early Childhood Development Coordinator of the Ghana Education Service and a member of the Committee, said the posting of teachers being done centrally from Accra was one of major causes of shortage of early childhood education teachers at the basic schools in the region.
He urged for intensified advocacy for the government to decentralise the posting of teachers to the regional level to ensure that proper distribution was made to help address the challenges and improve teaching and learning.
Mr Al-Hassan Ibrahim, Economic Planning Officer, Upper East Regional Coordinating Council, said the establishment of the Committee was critical to addressing challenges confronting childhood education and development and urged members of the Committee to intensify their efforts to achieve maximum results.
GNA