Hemang complains about refusal of teachers to reside in town

Hemang (Ash), Jan 24, GNA - Inhabitants of Hemang near Aboaso in the Kwabre District have expressed worry about the situation in which only two out of the 30 teachers posted there have accepted to reside in the community and teach.

They said despite the availability of accommodation for teachers, most of them have still resisted residing in the town but rather prefer to stay in Kumasi and do the 12-kilometer journey daily to Hemang.

The inhabitants expressed these sentiments at a durbar between the Kwabre West New Patriotic Party (NPP) constituency executive and the people at Hemang on Sunday to share ideas on problems of the area and how best to resolve them.

Mr Dabo Manu, a former assemblyman for Hemang/Ejuratia/Abrade, said the practice had resulted in most of the teachers coming late to school, negatively impacting on the academic performance of the pupils. He appealed to the Ghana Education Service (GES) to intervene and get the teachers to reside in the town in order to avoid deterioration standards in the school.

Mr Patrick Frimpong, the Headteacher of Ahwiaa Primary 'B' School, said the habit of teachers in the area refusing to reside in areas was not peculiar to only Hemang but a practice in virtually all communities in the Kwabre West Constituency.

Opinion leaders of the town later led the constituency executive to inspect the dilapidated junior secondary school block and toilet. The pupils cannot use the JSS block during the rains since the roofs were blown off and the walls have developed deep cracks.

Odeneno Appiah, the constituency Chairman, pledged to personally supply the community with building materials for the rehabilitation of the JSS block while efforts are being made to liase with the GES, the district assembly and other organizations to help construct a new block for the school.