Presby Church institutes training package for teachers

Tamale, July 1, GNA - The Presbyterian Education Unit with the support of the Church would soon institute a holistic in-service training package for 400 trained teachers and a sponsorship for 15 Pupil teachers in the Northern Region for the next four years. The region is currently facing a staffing problem while 2,465 vacancies exist in the schools, including Presbyterian schools. Mr. Chikpah Demuyakor, Northern Regional Director of Education announced this at a dedication of a Presbyterian Senior Secondary School in Tamale on Friday.

The Right-Reverend (Dr) Yaw Frimpong-Manso, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, performed the dedication. Mr.Demuyakor said apart from the shortage of teachers, the region needed an additional 1,828 classrooms and 36,925 pieces of furniture to enhance teaching and learning in schools.

The Regional Director commended the Presbyterian Church for its intervention to complement government's efforts at providing quality education and expressed the hope that the introduction of the sponsorship package would encourage and attract more teachers.

Mr. Demuyakor said the Presbyterian Education Unit has 29 kindergartens, 60 Primary and 18 Junior Secondary Schools in the region. The Church, he said, had also opened a vocational training centre at Vitting, a suburb of Tamale to cater for school dropouts. Currently, the Unit has 10,493 girls and 9,703 boys at the basic school level while the Presbyterian Secondary School has an enrolment of 264, made up of 181 boys and 83 girls.

Mr Demuyakor appealed to the students to be disciplined and always abide by the rule and regulations of the school.

The Reverend Edith Osafo-Affum, the Headmistress, announced that the school had a 100 per cent pass in the 2005 SSSCE with each of the students passing in at least three subjects. She said the school presented 60 candidates and out of the number, 27 registered for Business Studies, while the remaining 33 registered for General Arts.

Rev. Osafo-Affum mentioned inadequate staff accommodation, the provision of a hostel to house the girls and the lack of transport as some of the problems facing the school.

She appealed to the Ghana Education Service and donor agencies to help fence the school and provide some of the school's infrastructure.