Allow teachers to talk about challenges in schools – NGOs

Dr Michael Wombeogo, Director of Participatory Action for Rural Development Alternatives

Dr Michael Wombeogo, director of Participatory Action for Rural Development Alternatives (PARDA), a non-governmental organization, says the inability of teachers to share and discuss challenges in schools to find solutions affects activities academic.

He said that the measures instituted by the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to prevent teachers from sharing the challenges they face in schools, have greatly affected the quality of education, by especially in rural communities.

He expressed concern about the lack of furniture in some basic schools in the Kassena-Nankana West district and in some schools across the country, but school authorities who were aware of the negative effects of the situation on academic activities could not talk to get Support.

Dr Wombeogo was speaking at a ceremony to commission a new early childhood development center in Saboro, a community in Chiana, Kassena-Nankana West district, with financial support from Children Believe.

He said: “It is sad that there are schools where you will find children lying on their stomachs to write, but teachers seem to hide this fact as if it is a crime to put it in the public domain. for the necessary support. “

He noted that teachers who had direct contact with students and who enjoyed the challenges in many schools would not talk about the challenges to gain attention and seek support for their students for fear of victimization.

“You go to a school to find out why the children are lying on the floor and no one wants to talk about it. If you have a headache and you don’t say it, no one can help you treat it, ”he said.

Speaking on the need to protect children, the director said it was an abomination to send children to buy alcoholic beverages and cigarettes, and warned that “Parents, do not send your little children to buy alcoholic beverages. alcohol or cigarettes for you is an abomination. , let’s avoid that ”.

He said children could easily be enticed into getting involved in petty crime and called on stakeholders, especially parents and teachers, to ensure that children were well protected from the social vices that tended to be to ruin their future.

The director called on stakeholders, including the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service, to ensure strict enforcement of child protection laws across the country.

Mr. Edward Azure, Regional Director of the Upper East of the Ghana Education Service, said: “In fact, it is true that in most of our schools we lack furniture and other facilities. Even in many communities we have children sitting under the trees and learning. It is not the best.

He said education was free but had to be supported by stakeholders to achieve quality, adding that the government had provided furniture to schools over the years but attributed the huge furniture deficit poor maintenance of schools and communities.

Mr Azure said that aside from the lack of a maintenance culture, there was a need for the government to ensure that contractors built the furniture correctly so that it would last to serve its purpose in schools.