Ghana Needs Maths, English Teachers

THERE are about 800 vacancies for Mathematics and English teachers at the basic level of education in the country, while teachers in the business oriented subjects far exceed demand.

The acting Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mr Michael Nsowah, who stated this, said the situation was not very encouraging. Mr Nsowah was speaking after addressing new students to the Distance Education Programme organised by the Centre for Continuing Education of the University of Cape Coast last Friday.

The 3,560 students include 2,936 basic school teachers from all the regions and 597 business employees who will pursue Diploma in Commerce and Diploma in Management Studies programmes.

Mr Nsowah said the GES was working to ensure that the number of Mathematics and English teachers given support in the form of study leaves was increased compared to those for other subjects.

He said of the 3,000 teachers to be given study leave by the GES every year, priority would be given to teachers of Mathematics and English to increase their number.

“The GES will not support any teacher on study leave whom the GES was not sure will be returning to the service” he said.

Earlier at the meeting with the students, Mr Nsowah urged them to work extra hard to enable them to effectively combine teaching and learning and advised the them to work hard to complete the course successfully

The Director of the centre, Mr Albert Kobina Koomson, said the centre would work to ensure that the quality of the programme was maintained.