One headteacher teaches 9 classes alone in Sissala West district and this reality is not fun, to say the least. Stories such as this tell us the level of commitment this nation is putting into providing quality education and opportunities for many children in districts and communities far from the capital city.
To what extent has the MOE and GES considered the health of this headteacher as he overworks himself and how much do they pay him for all this work? Ghana must wake up and the two institutions in charge of education must do the same quickly.
Sadly, he teaches the 9 classes in addition to administrative work due to a lack of teachers in the district. He is also the only teacher at the JHS department.
There many teachers who have satisfied the requirements of the NTC for posting who are yet to be posted. The question is how long will the GES delay in deploying trained and qualified teachers to the Sissala West District and to this school specifically to help this overly dedicated headteacher help these school children.
The second challenge is how many of the newly trained teachers are willing to be posted to the district? It seems every one of them wants the cities.
Our education system needs proactive leadership that solves problems by the minute. This situation where a headteacher is teaching all classes in the same school did not happen overnight and people in leadership positions at the Ghana Education Service are surely aware of this.
The video shared by TV3 on its twitter handle shows very poor infrastructure, inadequate desk and other school buildings that the headteacher described as death traps.
Headteacher Teaches 9 classes over so many months and terms and nothing is done to deal with such a situation that demanded urgent solutions.
He explained the difficulties of making, teaching and even juggling between teaching and attending headteacher meetings.
One wonders why we always celebrate the best teacher without giving consideration to headteachers who dedicated their lives to go into the hinterlands to help educate Ghana’s future leaders in such poor and demotivating situations.
He was sincere to say that there were times that he is demoralized. Indeed he is a mortal human.
He teaches Basic 1 to Basic 9 (JHS3) and that does not just work overload but abuse of his persona by the GES.
He also was of the view that the needed personnel is not willing to teach in such areas even if schools are created under threes.
He added that when he calls for extra classes at no cost if his administrative work prevents him from teaching during normal contact hours, the children don’t turn up. This is because parents may also need their children at home or to run errands and so the patronage is not encouraging.
These are the schools where our new standard based curriculum is being implemented. It is time we are serious in this country and holds the Ghana Education Service and the Ministry of Education accountable for such happenings.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1198869641344499712
