THE Catholic Bishop of Koforidua, Most Rev. Joseph Afrifa Agyekum, has appealed to the government and the Ghana Education Service (GES) not to recruit teachers for national exercises that conflict with the academic calendar of educational institutions.
He said the practice of using basic and second cycle school teachers for the census and the national and district elections took the teachers away from the classrooms, a situation that adversely affected the standard of education in most public schools.
He said if such teachers should be engaged for the national exercises, it should be done during holidays to “save our pupils and students from suffering unnecessary academic drawbacks”.
He, therefore, suggested the recruitment and training of unemployed graduates from tertiary and second cycle institutions for such national exercises.
Speaking at a teachers’ durbar at Asamankese, Bishop Agyekum said “once our schools open for academic work to begin, teachers must be allowed to stay in the classroom to spend quality hours with their pupils and students without any interruption”.
The meeting was to afford the Catholic Bishop of Koforidua and other stakeholders the opportunity to meet and interact with the teachers who came from the various Catholic schools at Suhum, Asamankese, Kade, Adoagyire, Nsawam and Akwatia.
The bishop’s appeal followed earlier reports at the function by the West Akyem Municipal Director of Education, Mr Kofi Nti, that most of the basic school teachers who were recruited for the national census, after the exercise, went back to their schools only to write letters requesting for a two-week casual leave to enable them to undertake their engagement and wedding activities.
He had earlier partly blamed the non-commitment of most of the teachers to their profession for the poor standard of education in the municipality, citing lateness and absenteeism as some of the major factors contributing to the problem.
The acting Eastern Regional Manager of Catholic Schools, Mr Clemence Y. Baba, said lack of discipline among some of the teachers and lack of effective supervision by some of the headteachers of schools had contributed to poor academic performance by pupils and students.
“Efforts are now being made to assess the record of teachers before they are appointed as head of our schools,” he told the teachers as a warning to show commitment to the profession to pave way for any future promotions.
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