The report was based on data collected during flash inspections in 1,465 schools in 163 districts of the 10 regions of Ghana during the 2013/2014 academic year, and the first term of the 2014/2015 academic year.

 

Presenting the report at a forum of district directors of education and metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives in the Central Region last Wednesday, the Deputy Minister in charge of Pre-tertiary Education, Mr Alex Kyeremeh, said the situation was worse in the three regions in the north.

 

The study looked at teacher absenteeism, teacher preparedness, availability and use of core textbooks, effectiveness of circuit supervisors and community participation in schools.

 

Worse situations

 

Mr Kyeremeh noted that the situation in those regions was worsened by the huge numbers of “volunteer” and untrained teachers in the area.

 

“In some cases we found JHS graduates teaching in these schools and it is obvious some of them did not know how to prepare these lesson notes,” he said.

 

The report showed that 58 per cent of teachers in the Northern Region had no prepared work scheme, while 57 per cent of teachers in the Upper East and Upper West regions had the same problem.

 

On supervision

 

On supervision, Mr Kyeremeh said the report indicated that many schools were not visited over one academic year.

 

He noted that for instance, 158 schools visited as part of the evaluation were not inspected by any circuit supervisor in a term.

 

Nationwide, he said, 16 per cent of basic schools were not visited by any circuit supervisor during the third term of 2013/2014 academic year.

 

He said there was the need for the Ghana Education Service (GES) to improve supervision to ensure that the teachers did the right thing.

 

Textbooks

 

Mr Kyeremeh also expressed worry that some headteachers were not making textbooks available to the pupils for fear of being reprimanded or sanctioned by auditors for loss of or damage to the textbooks.

 

He said the government had spent over GH¢12 million in recent times to purchase textbooks for the pupils, adding that it was unfortunate that in some cases the books never got to the pupils.

 

Teacher absenteeism

 

Though the report indicated that teacher absenteeism had reduced from 19 per cent to 14 per cent between the 2013/2014 academic year and the first term of the 2014/2015 academic year, Mr Kyeremeh said the GES must ensure effective supervision to ensure that the figure was further reduced to a single digit.

 

The acting Chief Inspector of Schools with the NIB, Dr Augustine Tawiah, noted that there was the need to continue to organise refresher courses for headteachers to ensure effective management and supervision at the basic level.

 

The Central Regional Minister, Mr Aquinas Tawiah Quansah, urged the directors and chief executives to be proactive and innovative to achieve quality basic education in the region.