Community Teachers Training Programme takes off

Abetifi (E/R), Aug. 5, GNA - The International Foundation for Education for Self Help (IFESH), a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA), has started training 260 community teachers in three centres in the country.

The centres are the Abetifi College of Education, Tamale and Ajumako, where Senior High School leavers and pupil teachers are being taken through a four-year training course to provide adequate teachers for deprived basic schools.

Opening the Abetifi Centre training programme for 100 community teachers in the Kwahu South, Kwahu East and the Kwahu North districts, the Country Representative of IFESH, Mr Kwesi Dzidzienyo, said the programme was designed to address the shortage of qualified teachers in the communities.

He said the trainees would attend classes for four weeks before being sent to the classroom, and would return during vacation to continue their training with the same modules and methodology provided by the Ministry of Education. Mr Dzidzienyo said USAID provided funds for accommodation and modules for the trainees, while IFESH funded their feeding for the four-year period, with MiDA providing the rehabilitated and furnished classrooms.

He advised the trainees to take their lessons seriously to acquire the requisite knowledge to help improve the standard of education in their respective communities. In an address read on his behalf, the Kwahu East District Chief Executive, Mr Samuel Asamoah, said education held the key to unlock the hidden potentials of the youth to make them productive so they could contribute towards the building of a vibrant economy and the reduction of poverty. He said the wide disparity between the urban and rural areas in terms of availability of qualified teachers was unacceptable as it undermined the concept of Free Compulsorily Universal Basic Education (FCUBE). Mr Asamoah said plans were far advanced to support teachers in the rural areas with a "hardship allowance" of 20 percent of their salaries, and also provide sponsorship to enable them to further their education. He said roads in the rural areas were also being rehabilitated to open up those areas to make them attractive to newly posted teachers. Mr Asamoah commended USAID, IFESH and MiDA for not only identifying the problems confronting basic education in the deprived communities, but also providing viable and sustainable solutions to them. The Kwahu South District Director of Education, Mr Abraham Adjetey Sowah, advised the trainees to concentrate on their studies and to return to their communities to help the young ones develop their potential for the improvement of the country's human resource base.