Teachers to be paid per attendance

Deputy Minister of Education, Mr. Alex Kyeremeh has disclosed that the Ministry has implemented a system where public school teachers will be paid according to the number of days they show up to teach. According to him, the move is geared towards reducing the rate of teacher absenteeism in the various schools within the country. A World Bank and United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) report, indicate that Ghana ranked first in teacher absenteeism in West Africa. According to the report, teacher indolent is the major contributory factor to the low performance of pupils and students in public basic schools in the country. Mr. Kyeremeh said the ministry is working closely with the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in order to make the initiative a success. Commenting on the World Bank-UNICEF report, on the Citi FM  today, Mr. Alex Kyeremeh said the Minister of Education, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang had initiated a programmed dubbed ‘zero tolerance to teacher absenteeism‘ which begun last year, to clamp down on such recalcitrant teachers. Although he insisted that the situation “arguably is a global attitude,” he explained that “some teachers will not like to go to school because they have additional jobs to do. Meanwhile,  Deputy General  Secretary of  the  Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) in charge of  Education and Professional development, Thomas Baafi, on the same programme said although the report’s content is regrettable the teachers cannot be entirely blamed.

Source:Citifmonline.com