The Africa Education Watch has asked Education Minister Yaw Adutwum to stop the use of teachers for the upcoming census.
According to the outfit, using teachers will adversely affect academic work.
The education think-tank said the use of the teachers for the census will result in the loss of some twenty-one days of teachers’ time on tasks, apart from their absence in the classroom for the census training.
It has also argued that the move questions the implementation of the two hundred and sixteen million dollar Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project to strengthen supervision in schools.
The GES in May urged teachers to actively take part in the forthcoming 2021 Population and Housing Census.
A statement signed by the Deputy Director-General Dr Kwabena Bempah Tandoh advised Directors of Education across the country to allow teachers to partake in the exercise. That “teachers can go to school and sign, give assignments and leave after some hours to undertake such an important programme”.
But speaking on Starr Today, Executive Director of the Africa Education Watch Kofi Asare said, “Covid has eaten away a chance of our academic calendar. When you are in such a situation, the least you do is to compromise on time. Why am I saying this? Using some teachers for the census will require at least twenty-one days of sacrifice in the field and I don’t think Ghana is going to sacrifice twenty-one days off the classroom for some teachers”.
He added that private school teachers are preparing their students for BECE and public school teachers are busily undergoing training to participate in the population census so one can easily cipher the priorities of the public sector and the private sector.
Meanwhile, the Africa Education Watch is engaging Dr. Yaw Adu-Twum over the matter.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5fm/Doreen Boakye
