By Jesse Ampah Owusu
Accra, April 05, GNA – Stakeholders in education at a conference have expressed concerns about the increasing number of teachers leaving Ghana to abroad, saying, the situation is rendering classrooms empty.
They said the situation was affecting teaching and learning in basic schools due to inadequate teachers.
They, therefore, asked the Ghana Education Service to give early clearance for recruitment of new teachers to address the shortfall.
This was made known during a stakeholder engagement forum to make input into political parties manifestos organised by SEND Ghana.
The forum brought together stakeholders in Education, Health, Social Protection, Child Welfare and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene to make input that would be adopted by political parties in their manifestos.
Madam Akosua Manu, a District Education Director, said the teacher exodus was driven mainly by poor remuneration and working conditions of teachers.
She called for the provision of motivations in the form of allowances for teachers, especially those in the hinterlands, to encourage them to stay.
Ms Manu said Governments should engage district education stakeholders in putting up school buildings, adding that, that would ensure that the buildings met the needs of pupils.
She also called for the timely and adequate release of funds and logistics to the schools, as well as, ensure the equitable distribution of school infrastructure.
Mr Joshua Addy, Acting National Coordinator, National Council of Persons With Disability, said school buildings should be disability friendly, and designed with double exit to have free movement for children.
He added that teaching and learning materials should be made in accessible forms for special students, including in large fonts, animations and sounds.
Dr Emmanuel Ayifah, Deputy Country Director at SEND Ghana, said they intended to collate input in the five sectors to get a blueprint of national demands for parties to include in their policies and programmes.
He said they would follow up with the political parties on the input to ensure that they did not only include it in their policies, but also implement them when they formed government.
GNA