Government has disclosed that the rate of teacher absenteeism in the country has been reduced to 11 percent.
[contextly_sidebar id=”dcxag86SWzymWK2a3rYSRQrhHhf6GHb4″]According to the Ministry of Education, teacher absenteeism as at 2012 was 27 percent, the trend which had made Ghana`s situation the worse in the West African Region.
The Ministry of Education had commissioned a committee to design modalities for addressing the issue of teacher absenteeism in March, as part of its efforts to effectively implement the policy of Zero Tolerance for Teacher Absenteeism and to increase teachers’ time spent in the classroom.
Addressing the public at the Government for the people forum in Accra, the Deputy Minister of Education in charge of Tertiary Education, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa indicated that the ministry will still forge ahead to reduce the absenteeism to zero percent.
“We carried out surprise visits at 11,594 schools at the basic levels and are happy to announce that teacher absenteeism in Ghana has declined from 27 percent to 11.”
The Minister further reported that the current ratio of core text book to a pupil is three books to a pupil.
“We managed to secure the support of our development partners who provided us with $ 47.7 million and we used that to procure 12. 5 million pieces of text book which we distributed across the levels,” he disclosed.
Mr Ablakwa added that Ghana has met the norm in pupil to core text book ratio adding “every pupil in our public schools is entitled to three core textbooks in English mathematics and science and we have met that norm.”
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By: Patricia Conteh/citifmonline.com/Ghana