The Gomoa West District Assembly in the Central Region has constructed teachers’ bungalows in some deprived communities to accommodate teachers who accept postings to the area.
This initiative by the assembly was meant to address the accommodation challenges faced by teachers who accepted postings into those communities.
It was also meant to serve as solution to the high rate at which teachers often refused posting to the district or stayed for few years and leave due to accommodation difficulties.
Addressing the Assembly at its last sitting for the year 2022, the District Chief Executive, Mr Bismark Baisie Nkum, explained that the initiative would motivate teachers to stay.
Already, four of the proposed projects have been completed and are currently in use at Abonko, Darmang, Dago and Whida a.
The remaining one, which is yet to be completed, is located at Mankoadze, also within the district.
Rationale behind the initiative
Mr Nkum noted that the Assembly was badly affected by the high rate at which teachers either refused postings or sought transfer from the district yearly. This rate, he said, adversely affected the general performance of public schools in the district and therefore, became a major concern to the assembly.
“It was realised that the lack of accommodation for the teachers was the main reason most of our teachers here have left and it continues to hinder the newly posted ones,” he said.
“Imagine a teacher who goes to use the public place of convenient with his pupils all the time and goes to school to teach the same kids. It creates discomfort”, He added.
In view of the above, he mentioned that the assembly made it a priority to build teachers’ bungalows across the district to provide decent accommodation for teachers.
According to him, this was meant to motivate teachers within the district to stay and also attract others to accept postings into the district.
“The teachers here communicate with their colleagues elsewhere and they know how others engage in other businesses in their community to support themselves. Unfortunately, most our teachers here do complain that the internal economic activities in our communities do not provide fertile opportunities for them to do same”.
This situation and the lack of comfortable accommodation for the teachers, he explained, accounted for the reasons teachers were not willing to remain in the district for a longer period.
Appeal to the University of Education, Winneba
The DCE emphasised that the assembly has appealed to the authorities at the University of Education to annually send some of their students on internship to the district.
This, according to him, would be the first step to help stem the tide, as it would help the district to have more teachers to improve teaching and learning in the area.
The District Director of Education, Madam Cecilia Aboagye, noted that the lack of teachers in the district constitutes as an existential difficulty to the directorate.
She, therefore, praised the DCE and the assembly for their vision and willingness to provide befitting accommodation for teachers and hoped that it would end the attrition syndrome.
