Thumbs up for Prof Naana Opoku Agyemang

 
One of the problems militating against quality education, especially, at the basic level, is teacher absenteeism.  In 2011, Mr. Samuel Oppong, National Co-ordinator of the Computerised Schools Selection and Placement System, announced to Ghanaians that   176,128 candidates, representing 46.93 per cent of the 375,280 candidates who sat for the 2011 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), met the criteria for selection and placement into Senior High Schools (SHSs) and Technical Institutions (TIs).

This is obviously below the 50% pass mark, but the Ghana Education Service, surprisingly, issued a statement where it argued that, ”this is an improvement over last year, because 172,359 out of 350,888 candidates who wrote the BECE qualified for placement into SHSs and TIs during last year.”

The 2010 figure the GES referred to, in terms of percentage, was 49%, whilst the 2011 was approximately 47%.  The improvement being referred to by GES at the time was just 2%.

Following this abysmal performance, a number of institutions conducted a research to find out possible causes of the problem, and number one among them was teacher absenteeism.  In its final report on the state of schools in the country, from 2013 to the beginning of the 2014/2015 academic year, the National Inspectorate Board (NIB) of the Ghana Education Service identified teacher absenteeism as a major threat to the educational system in Ghana.

Dr. Augustine Tawiah, Acting Chief Inspector of Schools, who read the report, said most teachers participated in workshop activities on school days, leaving the classrooms empty.

He said the inability of the headteachers to sanction or discipline habitual absentees or lateness to school, also contributed to the poor teaching and learning.

Earlier, the World Bank had also released a report titled, ‘Education in Ghana: Improving Equity, Efficiency and Accountability of Education Service Delivery,’ where the Breton Woods Institution mentioned teacher absenteeism as a major contributory factor to the low standard of our education.

According to the report, teachers in Tunisia and Morocco miss 11.6 days and 13.4 days a year, while teachers in Ghana miss 43 days. Among the main underlying reasons for the high absentee rate are lack of supervision, sickness/medical care, collection of salary at a bank located at a distance, and frequent funeral attendance.

From the above research material we have quoted, it is clear that teacher absenteeism was the major contributor to the fallen standard of education in Ghana. For a teacher to abandon his or her classroom to attend a funeral, that has no direct link to his/her immediate family is problematic, but this was happening.

It is in the light of this that The Chronicle is happy with the announcement by the Minister of Education, Naana Opoku Agyemang, that the Zero Tolerance for Teacher Absenteeism policy adopted by her ministry to enhance accountability and increase teacher presence, as well as time at desk in schools, has yielded positive results.

According to her, after three years of its implementation, the rate of teacher absenteeism has declined, from 27 per cent in 2012 to seven per cent in 2016.

She vowed to continue to champion the cause until the rate of teacher absenteeism had been brought to zero. As a university professor, and, therefore, a teacher herself, Naana Opoku Agyeman understands the importance of research – a tool she has effectively utilised to address problems confronting the sector.

It is the hope of The Chronicle that the policy would be vigorously pursued until there is zero absenteeism of teachers in our classrooms. No country can properly develop, if her education is in shambles, and that is why teachers at the basic level, who give the children a foundation in education, should be well policed to ensure that they leave up to expectation.

Naana Opoku Agyemang and her ministry should, however, not gloss over the problems that beget teacher absenteeism. If the teacher is not well paid, forcing him or her to stay in the classroom would also become proble