300 Teachers in Ketu district apply for study leave or retirement

Sogakope (Volta Region) 18 June '99

Three hundred out of the 1,428 basic school teachers in the Ketu district have applied for study leave or want to proceed on voluntary retirement.

Mr Henry Ametepe, Ketu District Chief Executive, announced this at the first in the series of decentralised meet-the-press forums at Sogakope in the South Tongu district on Wednesday.

Already the staffing situation in most schools is poor and the expected reduction in the number of teachers will worsen the situation, he said.

He, therefore, appealed to the government to allow the Ghana Education Service to recruit "A" level holders and graduates from the polytechnics to fill the vacancies to be created.

Mr Ametepe said the Ketu district has a total enrolment of 45,647 pupils at the basic level, distributed among 31 pre-schools, 115 primary schools and 81 junior secondary schools.

He said the assembly has established an endowment fund to boost the enrolment of girls in second cycle schools where they form only 25 per cent of the total enrolment of 2,075.

Mr Ametepe announced that 42 students in the region are benefiting from a scholarship scheme instituted by Korpeyia-Ghana Fund International based in New Jersey, United States.

The Ketu district has established five community libraries to inculcate the reading habit in the youths, he added.

He appealed to organisations and individuals to help stock the libraries with books.

Ketu was among five districts which presented their programmes and plans at the forum attended by chiefs, heads of departments and assembly members.