Headteacher Advocates Exchange of Teachers for Effective Learning

By Alberta Sarpong

Nankese-Abisim — The headteacher of the Nankese-Abisim M/A Basic School, Mr Julius Okyere Bekoe, has appealed to the Ghana Education Service (GES) to periodically exchange teachers who teach in the rural areas with those teaching in the cities, to enhance effective teaching and learning.

He noted that the change would help promote education in the country, as pupils would not be too familiar with a particular group of teachers for a longer time.

Mr Bekoe, who made this appeal in an interview with the Ghanaian Times last Tuesday, noted that teachers were sent to villages to change the lives of pupils but if care was not taken, the lives of the teachers would also change as a result of their long stay at a particular place.

"When teachers from the towns get the opportunity to teach at the villages and vice versa, it would create room for them to give their best," he said, adding that it was unfair for a professional teacher to stay in the rural area for over 20 years.

"Those who teach in the cities are not better than us in the villages because we all possess the same certificate and have the same qualification," he added.

Mr Bekoe disclosed this at Santramozorh, a village near Akorabo in the Suhum municipality of the Eastern Region where he was posted for 13 years; palm wine was prepared at the back of his house and each day, the owner would send him a bottle of the palm wine, but he refused anytime he was offered.

"Do you not think that I would have become a drunkard if I had accepted the palm wine and be addicted to it, because after all it was given for free?" he asked.

The headteacher noted that communities in most of the villages did not understand the purpose of education and the importance of correcting a child when he or she erred, and would attack teachers in schools for punishing their wards.

He indicated that teachers in the rural areas were hardworking, as they sometimes use their own money to buy text books for the lessons, because they lack text books and teaching and learning materials (TLMs).

"Parents also do not buy reading materials for their wards, as English tutors had to spend time to write stories during comprehension period, for the pupils to be able to answer questions from it," he added.

The headteacher also noted that teenage pregnancy was a common occurrence in most villages, especially in his village, adding that a number of junior high school (JHS) pupils including two pupils from class four had given birth.

"We try to encourage them back to the school, after they give birth, as the teachers always visit victims of teenage pregnancy and advise their parents on the need for the teenage mothers to go back to school," he said.

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