Govt must bridge the education gap

between rural and urban areas

By Ali Tanti Robert*

Ghana's efforts to achieve the targets of Universal Primary Enrolment and Completion by 2015 as enshrined in the Education for All Protocol which the country is a signatory continues to be a major concern to all stakeholders in the educational sector. Ghana's educational sector continues to face several challenges and the situation is worse in rural areas.
There is a very big gap between urban and rural children with respect to access to good and quality education and this has always placed rural children at a disadvantage. The disparities between the rural and urban areas are seen in terms of teacher distributions, poor infrastructure such as classrooms, teaching and learning materials, electricity, among others. Despite the construction of buildings, we still have pupils sitting under trees to learn, with the rains making teaching and learning more difficult.
The most disturbing aspect of this issue is the kind of infrastructure we put kindergarten pupils in to study, knowing that they are at their formative stage. This is because when the government fails to offer the child a firm foundation in education, it affects his or her entire educational life. The end-product of the disparity is also evidenced in the performance of students in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). A school of thought believes that children in rural areas get little or nothing from their nine year basic education given their poor results in the BECE. Even dough this assertion is debatable, it holds a quantum of truth.
For instance, in the Preliminary Education Sector Performance Report 2008 of the then Ministry of Education Science and Sports (MOESS) stated that results in the 2007 BECE indicated that results for girls, especially those in the most deprived districts and regions, were significantly lower than for other pupils.
It is evidently clear that once you find yourself in a rural area, you are already at a disadvantage with your counterparts in the city. Also, a study conducted by the Ghana Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC) in 2008 revealed that in 2007-08, only 59.4% of primary teachers countrywide were trained. In the deprived areas, the figures were as low as 32.7% of primary, and 62.9% of junior high school teachers. In addition to the above, the Preliminary Education Sector Performance Report 2008 revealed that the ten districts with the lowest percentages of trained teachers in Ghana were deprived.
Disparities
The 2008 GNECC study looked at teacher deployment in the Atebubu-Amanten and Sene districts of the Brong Ahafo Region, New Juaben (Koforidua) Municipality in the Eastern Region and Tema Metropolis in the Greater Accra Region. The purpose of the study was to highlight some of the disparities between the rural and urban areas. It found out that only 52% of primary school teachers in the Atebubu-Amanten District, and 25% in Sene District were trained. In sharp contrast, the Tema Metropolis and New Juaben Municipality had 99.5% and 98% trained teachers respectively.
To make up for the shortfall of trained teachers in the Brong Ahafo Districts, pupil teachers were employed under the National Youth Employment Scheme. Majority of them were senior high school leavers with poor qualifications, and often little further training. Despite this situation, there was a surplus of 554 teachers in Greater Accra at the basic level who continued to remain at post, according to the Ghana Education Service (GES).
This revelation is an epitome of what is happening to the rural folks in Ghana. This situation means that the disparity in education delivery needs more attention than it has been given. Government intervention, through the distribution of exercise books, school uniforms and the provision of free meals in some rural areas, are recommended and government must step up its efforts in bridging the gap.
Government must cautiously adopt a work-able strategy to make education in rural areas more relevant and useful to its beneficiaries and the communities at large. Such a strategy must have a long term goal of bringing children to school, generating their interest to learn and maintaining such interest for them to climb the educational ladder. In my candid opinion, government must pay more attention to teacher training and placement, look at improving infrastructural development and provide quality teaching and learning materials if it is really interested in making educational life in rural areas better.
Teacher Training and Placement: Government must apportion a percentage of trained teachers to serve in rural areas and support them with incentives so that it does not appear as a form of punishment when they are posted to remote areas. Former President John Evans Atta Mills promised a twenty per cent increase in salary for all teachers who accept postings to rural areas but it never materialised. Since the same National Democratic Congress (NDC) is in power now, I wish to call on President John Dramani Mahama to fulfill the promise of his predecessor.
The NDC government must do all it can to get professional teachers to handle primary school children in the rural areas, especially the ones in kindergarten, since these are where their educational foundation is laid. I get irritated when I hear people say anybody can teach so if teachers are not willing to serve in the rural areas, government must employ other people to fill the vacuum. The ceiling on admission to teacher training colleges must be re-moved so that the country can have more teachers to handle classes.
Good Learning
Infrastructural Development: A good learning environment stimulates learning and sustains children's interest in school. The kind of structures serving as classrooms in some communities is nothing to write home about. Government must provide decent classrooms with electricity, pipe-borne water and toilet facilities to make life comfortable for school. I personally taught in a Junior High School in a remote area where the teachers had to run to the primary school with the students anytime there was a sign that it would rain because our structure was almost collapsing.
Unfortunately for us, the primary school had only three classrooms which were accommodating class one to six. So we had to stand in the veranda for the rain to calm down. This was in the 2008/2009 academic year. Government must therefore not relent in its efforts to get pupils and students who still sit under trees for classes and to study a better and conducive environment.
Provision of Quality Teaching and Learning Materials: One of the major challenges ham-pering lesson delivery is access to good and quality materials. Sometimes the situation is such that teachers become helpless and give up. Many rural schools do not have reading books, computers, library, among others.
In recent times, even chalk to write on the black board has become a problem. When we give free exercise books and students do not have text books, what exercises are they going to do? How do we get schools in remote areas some computer laboratories so that teachers will stop the teaching of ICT without computers? When are we going to start free distribution of reading materials so that they can take them home and read?

The politicisation of education policies and the lip-services are enough; our leaders must walk the talk now.

*The writer is member of the Youth Media Group of YES-Ghana. He is also the Executive Director of Youth Alliance for Development, Obuasi. Email: tantirobert@yahoo.co.uk