The suspected rotten mackerel, with the brand name ‘Asahi,’ was allegedly imported by one Kofi Dokyi, owner of Dokyispo Ventures that deals in general merchandise.

The items were said to have been cleared on September 30 at the Tema Port to be sold on the Ghanaian market.

Residents of the area, who could not withstand the pungent stench, had to report the matter to the police.

A resident told DAILY GUIDE that the warehouse owned by Mr Dokyi and where the rotten mackerels were to be kept was used for storing only used cloths at Ofankor.

He said their attention was drawn to the situation on Tuesday, October 2, when the offensive stench started reverberating through the air in the area.

“When I went there to find out the source of the scent – since we know the owner of the warehouse deals in only used clothing – I saw some boys discharging the said goods into the warehouse and asked what they were,” the resident averred.

He said they later realized that it was mackerel imported for sale.

The country from which the product was imported was not immediately known.

He said when he checked the expiry date on the product, he realized that it would expire in 2018 but was already rotten “and so we reported the matter to the police.”

Another resident, Sylvester Aidoo, told DAILY GUIDE that if they did not report the matter to the police as concerned citizens, they feared the rotten mackerel would be rebranded and sold to unsuspecting individuals.

When the paper got to the scene, one of the containers had already been discharged into the warehouse, but the three other containers were intact.

In an interview with drivers of the vehicles, they claimed they did not know the owner.

The Mile 7 police patrol team later visited the scene to escort the vehicles to the station.

When contacted, ASP Efia Tenge, Accra Regional Public Relations Officer, said residents visited the station to give a report on the said rotten mackerel.

The owner of the product, she said, was later invited to the station to give his statement.

Meanwhile, she said efforts were being made by the police to get officials of the Food and Drug Authority (FDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to advise the police on what to do.

The owner has since been granted police enquiry bail while investigation continues.

The vehicles containing the goods have also been impounded.

–

Source: Daily Guide

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This followed the engagement of few community voluntary teachers,  as part of a stop-gap measure,  as the Mamprugu-Moaduri District Directorate of Education awaited the deployment of trained teachers to the district.

Mr Mohammed Abu Baba, Mamprugu-Moaduri District Director of Education announced this at a stakeholders’ forum in Tamale organized by the Net Organization for Youth Empowerment and Development (NOYED-Ghana),  to discuss the significance of the contributions of community voluntary teachers in promoting quality education in West Mamprusi, Talensi-Nabdam and Jirapa Districts.

It formed part of a programme dubbed Tackling Education Needs Inclusively (TENI) being implemented by NOYED-Ghana,  with support from Voluntary Service Organization,  to lead the promotion of local volunteering for quality education delivery in the three districts.

Mr. Abu Baba said the Mamprugu-Moaduri District had 27 kindergartens, 33 primary schools and 13 junior high schools, while the total number of teachers at post was 152, leaving a shortfall of 226.

He said a number of the teachers currently at post had also put in applications for study leave,  threatening the already precarious situation,  adding “A lot more teachers posted to the district have refused to come.”

He explained why teachers refused to serve in the district saying “The district lacks basic amenities including electricity.”

He was hopeful that the on-going teacher redeployment exercise being undertaken by the Ghana Education Service, would lead to the posting of more qualified teachers to the district,  to help improve the pupil-teacher ratio and standard of education in the district.

Mr Saani Nurudeen, Upper West Regional Director of the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency(GYEEDA), who presented a report on the topic: Reducing Teacher Shortages in Rural Ghana Using Community Education Teaching Assistants (CETA) module of GYEEDA, said a lot of schools in the region lacked trained teachers, while others did not have teachers at post.

Mr Nurudeen suggested solar lamps and improvement in road infrastructure and other amenities to encourage teachers to accept postings to deprived communities.

Dr Sagre Bambangi, Member of Parliament for Walewale,  called for special packages and preferential treatment for teachers who accept postings to deprived communities to entice others to such communities.

Mr Alhassan Abdulai Iddi, Executive Director of NOYED-Ghana,  said the organization had placed 27 community volunteer teachers at Jirapa, West Mamprusi and Talensi Nabdam Districts, and is supporting them with in-service training, logistics and monthly stipends to motivate them to help improve education in those districts.

Reports showed that there was excess teacher supply in the country,  but deprived communities lacked adequate number of teachers,  because most teachers preferred to remain in urban centers, making those schools  have more than required number of teachers.

NOYED-Ghana is a youth organization that seeks to improve the quality of life of youth and the vulnerable in society for sustainable development

Source: GNA

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This was disclosed to the Regional Minister during a consultation meeting held in Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region.

The Chairman of the Conference of the Heads of Assisted Schools in the region, Patrick Tangoyiri said though some schools in the area have improved, indiscipline is on the increase.

“We have problems with students bringing mobile phones and causing all the problems that are associated with the use of mobile phones; looking at pornographic pictures instead of studying and when it comes to exams, they want to use their phones to whatsapp questions to their friends,” he lamented.

“The next problem is the time they pay the feeding grant. This is another problem that is affecting our work as head  teachers because when we don’t have the feeding grant, the boarding schools will not be able to open on time,” he added.

Commenting on students’ accommodation, he noted that the dormitories are crowded because the schools don’t have enough dormitory blocks for either boys or girls.

By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The problem, he said, has compounded the educational problems in the area.

He said despite some empty classrooms, there were over 1,000 excess teachers in the Tamale Metropolis and the Sagnarigu district and noted that such excess teachers had created vacant classrooms in many schools .

He therefore revealed the Metroplis’  intention of redeploying the excess teachers to fill the classrooms.

Speaking on the sidelines of a regional policy dialogue organised by ActionAid Ghana (AAG), an advocacy non-governmental organization operating in the country,Mr Apanga said the Tamale Metropolis had 517 excess teachers while the Sagnarigu district had 608 excess teachers and that the Business Secondary School (BISCO) alone had 13 excess teachers and were being red

The forum was meant to identify weaknesses in development projects and to plan on how to chart a new course or paradigm that would produce results for the people especially the poor and the disadvantaged in society.

He said the GES in the region had embarked on a rationalisation exercise to get rid of the extra teachers that were in the cities especially the Tamale Metro and the Sagnarigu district and that, those excess teachers would be transferred to deprived and underserved communities while others would be posted to the 404 schools that were without teachers.

When asked about his dual role as Northern and Upper East Regional director, Mr Apanga explained that he was transferred from the Upper East to the Northern Region in September 2012 and had since been acting for the Upper East because no one had taken over that position.

Mr Sumaila Abdul-Rahaman, Country Director of AAG observed that the consistent failures on various policies in the country was because of their over dependence on inflows from external sources stressing that many Assemblies’ medium terms have failed because of such problems.

He said it was time Assemblies in Ghana borrowed laudable policies from Burkina Faso to solve local problems saying, “In Burkina Faso, dug outs that are created as a result of road constructions are used to construct dams for irrigation”.

The Country Director explained that such dams were used to produce vegetables such as tomatoes, onions and livestock and exported to Ghana stressing that Ghana could have done better if its arable lands and the conducive weather conditions were utilized judiciously.

Mr Abdul-Rahaman said his areas of priority as a new director of AAG would be in food security, women rights and women smallholder farmers to promote their access to lands to produce food to liberate them economically.

Alhaji Abdul-Basit Fuseini, Deputy Northern Regional Minister underscored the importance of the regional policy dialogue and indicated that the region had huge potentials but that those potentials had been derailed by negative publicities.

He urged the people in the region to think collectively to find solutions that would tackle developmental and educational problems confronting the area noting that the region lost its position as the enviable producer of rice.

The Northern Regional Monitoring and Evaluation Officer of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Mr Peter Claver Anyeember, decried the low ratio of extension officers in the region stressing that agriculture was hugely affected because new methods of farming could not be properly transferred to farmers.

He said in 2014, there were estimated 324,551 farmers in the region with only 237 extension officers explaining that each district was supposed to have 32 extension officers but in some cases, only two extension officers could be found in a district in the region.

Source: GNA

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