Head teachers and colleague teachers in the Asuogyaman District of the Eastern Region are up in arms against officials of the District Education Office at Senchi whom they claim are contributing to the falling standards of education in the district with their corrupt activities and autocratic nature.
They alleged members of the current examination board in the district has arrogated to themselves responsibilities and powers which are meant for teachers and head teachers all in attempt to accrue money for themselves.
An example of such, the teachers said, was how the Examination Board as a means of �milking� pupils prevented the teachers from organising terminal examinations for Junior High School (JHS) pupils in the district.
That situation, the teachers claim, is detrimental to pupils in the district.
According to them, they have no experience in setting examination questions, an exercise albeit is the responsibility of teachers.
�I don�t even know how to set terminal examination questions because all questions are brought from the district office�I can only set class test questions�the pupils thus do not trust me as a good teacher,� a Junior High School (JHS) teacher who pleaded anonymity told Today.
A head teacher of a school who also agreed to speak to the paper on condition of anonymity said all terminal examination questions for Kindergarten to JHS are brought from the district office which was not supposed to be the case.
According to the head teacher, that has made it difficult for teachers to properly assess the pupils at the end of every term.
The teachers also contended that the examination board sometimes go for questions from other districts including North Tongu in the Volta Region.
Again, the board has relegated to the background its responsibilities of not going for the first mock examinations which was written by JHS 3 pupils some weeks ago from some of the schools.
The teachers further pointed out that they are sometimes not paid allowances for invigilating mock examinations, and also bemoaned the mode of conducting terminal mock examination for final year JHS pupils.
Worse still, the teachers complained bitterly about the lack of marking schemes, examination timetables, inadequate examination materials among others
They added that the district mock examination questions meant for all the schools in the district are annually haphazardly deposited in one school.
Today also discovered that on-going mock examination questions in the district were in a very appalling state and had been deposited at the house of a former Circuit Supervisor.
�It is very unfortunate that these untoward happenings continue to persist despite several complaints by teachers in the district,� a Metal Works tutor at Boso-Senior High School said.
The teachers added that anybody who tried to raise the appalling state of educational issues in the district was witch-hunted.
They further claimed that the education office has refused to service three of its Pick-ups that have broken down and rather resorted to fueling the vehicle of the deputy District Education Superintendent, Mr. Prosper Yekple, which is used by the district to run errands.
When Mr. Yekple was contacted on phone, he questioned whether there was something wrong with his vehicle being used to run errands for the office.
He hinted that the state of the office vehicles is not in good condition and directed this reporter to contact the District Director of Education for further information.
When the deputy Director of Human Resource, Mr. Fred Kotoka, was reached on why teachers are not permitted to set terminal examination questions, he declined to comment.
Meanwhile attempts to get the District Director of Education react to the allegations proved futile as several calls to his cell phone were not answered.
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