Untrained teachers dominate Western Region schools

INFORMATION reaching The Chronicle indicates that there is a growing concern among stakeholders in the education sector in the Western Region, over the lack of teachers in the classrooms in some of the communities in the hinterlands.

As a result, about 55 percent of the teachers engaged by the Ghana Education Service (GES) in the 17 districts are untrained. Out of the total figure of about 16,543 teachers in the region, who are currently in the classrooms, 7,545 are untrained.

The situation is being attributed to the lack of social amenities, including decent accommodation, in most of the communities, to entice trained teachers.

The poor nature of infrastructure in the education sector in the region, is also being seen as a contributory factor by some officials of the Ghana Education Service (GES) GES in the region.

The Western Regional Director of the GES, Madam Effiba Dadzie, confirmed the report. She, however, believes that the decision by some of the districts, particularly the rural ones, to sponsor local inhabitants to teacher training collages for them to come back to teach in the district, would help stem the tide.

She, however, regretted that whilst some of the regions, particularly those in the northern part of the country, are craving to sponsor students to enter the training colleges, those in the Western Region are reluctant.

She noted that this was also contributing to the large number of untrained teachers in the region.

“We need our own indigenes to accept entrance into training colleges,” she said.

The Chronicle has meanwhile gathered that the Bia and Jomoro districts in the region, where the ratio of teacher trainees has been inadequate, have stepped up their efforts in sponsoring students from the districts to the teacher training colleges.