Starr News has uncovered a disturbing development in Karaga district of the Northern region where schools in more than 15 high poverty communities have remained empty since the start of this academic term, due to absence of teachers and a chronic lack of basic educational amenities such as desks.
A weeklong field survey and investigations conducted by Starr News found that more than half of about 17 basic schools in far flung oversea communities in the district have been in session without teachers since May, when the third term of the academic year began.
The investigations revealed the situation was caused by a decision of the District Chief Executive (DCE) Alhassan Yabdoo to solitarily interfere in and hijack a teachers’ recruitment exercise from education authorities in the area.
The Ghana Education Service (GES), the only body in the country responsible for recruiting teachers for public schools, in October last year advertised for applications for recruitment into vacant positions in the teaching department nationwide.
The DCE and his aide then seized control over the recruitment exercise and handpicked applications only from supposed natives of the district who were at the same residents.
In total, about 39 teachers were employed out of 86 transferred from the district last year. Some of the new recruits told Starr News they were made to pay monies for the job. Others said they signed an “undertaking” to forfeit a month salary as one of the conditions for their recruitment.
However, two months after these teachers were posted, schools in the oversea communities are closing and hopeless parents continue to withdraw their children in droves to accompany them to farms because teachers who have accepted the postings, have refused to report to the schools.
Out of the number, 10 were posted to the Zandua Circuit but only three have reported and currently at post. It also emerged that majority of the recruits were coming from Tamale, the regional capital, and only a little were natives and residents of the district.
Out of over 1,500 school children in that Circuit alone, only a disturbingly 20% can read and write, and nearly 85% cannot speak good English. 90% of that number have no basic knowledge in ICT, a GES report revealed.
The investigations were centered in 10 communities including; Gbanlua, Galabihi, Zandua, Dimong, Kpasong, Nanburinga, Gunaayili.
From one village to another, nowhere is the crumbling of the basic school system more evident than in the impoverished Karaga district where schools are managed by Senior High School graduates.
The fully fledged primary school at Gbanlua was closed down due to absence of teachers. There were only two teachers Wednesday morning when Starr News visited during lessons time, the head teacher, Seidu Musah took the school children to his farmland for planting.
Dozens of the children were seen walking with their mothers to farm.
Only eight teachers were teaching primary and Junior High School students of over 150 population at Zandua. Out of the number, only 40 children have access to desks for lessons and the remaining sit on the dirty floor or lay on broken wooden structures to study.
“We normally don’t find it easy at all, because teaching students while they are sitting on floor always disturbs the teachers”, a young teacher, Mashud Baba told Starr News.
“When I was doing my teaching practice, I taught at one Junior High. And that place everything was alright, so in fact I didn’t even want to come here. I had wanted to remain there but because I was a new teacher they posted me to this oversea, and when I came here, it’s a disaster for me. I don’t enjoy the teaching just because of the situation”, he laments.
A teacher at Galabihi described teaching in the community as being in “prison”.
Abdulahi Ibrahim has taught in the village for almost four years and currently managing the basic school with one other teacher. There are over 80 school children with no single desk for lessons. The deplorable nature of the school building is enough reason for parents to feel discouraged and remove their wards into farming.
Kpasong D/A primary school had only three teachers. There was only one teacher who was just there offering daycare service. There is no single desk for the over 120 pupils.
Safianu Abdul Fataw said a contractor who was supposed to, as part of the construction agreement, provide desks was yet to deliver. He said the contractor handed over the building in 2016 without the desks.
“The foreman gave us his (contractor’s) number and all the time when we call he said we should not worry and up to now the children are sitting on the ground. No furniture for them to sit”, Safianu disclosed.
A considerable number of pupils in the majority of basic schools in the Karaga district still study in poor conditions which is adversely affecting their performance. The field investigations also found that in some schools, the desk to pupil ratio stands shockingly at 1:4 while others have no desk at all and resort to the floor to study.
Education should be the great equalizer but in Karaga public education is more of holding cell than a launch pad. The lack of trained teachers and the poor conditions of schools in these areas which is discouraging teachers from accepting postings, are jeopardizing the prospects for quality education and attainment of Sustainable Development Goal 4.
The District Chief Executive confirmed “hijacking” the recruitment exercise and said he did that to secure jobs for the people of Karaga.
Alhassan Yabdoo could not deny the findings of the field investigations by Starr News but also could not provide answers why the teachers he recruited refused to report to the communities to teach.
He promised to find out from the Human Resources Department of the education directorate in the district. He also denied taking money from the recruits and insisted there was nothing “fishy” about his decision.
On the matter of lack of desks, the DCE said he was waiting for the release of the Common Fund as the assembly is too financially unfit to internally procure the infrastructure due to its widespread.
The aide to the DCE, Saani, mentioned as the person who took the monies on behalf of the DCE and supervised the signing of the undertaking, denounced the allegations as politically orchestrated.
He said his political opponents were trying to sully his integrity in order to wreck his chances of being appointed as district coordinator of NACOB.
The District Education Director Hajia Rahamatu Gariba said she took over the position not quite long and was yet to review documents about the limited recruitment exercise.
She declined further comment, saying “I’m new, I can’t say anything. I will be telling a lie, I don’t know anything”.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM/Eliasu Tanko
