Government committed to improve welfare of teachers - Ayariga

Accra, May 12, GNA - Mr Mahama Ayariga, Deputy Minister of Education on Thursday said government would always cater for the welfare of teachers since a happy teacher would always be prepared to deliver quality services to pupils.

He said teachers' welfare most often determined their preparedness to deliver no matter what circumstance they operate. Mr Ayariga made the pledge during a visit to Nii Sowah Din Cluster of Schools at Adenta, an Accra suburb to interact with teachers and heads of the schools to have first hand information of their activities, challenges and how best they could be solved.

He said "the most important thing about a teacher is his or her happiness."

Mr Ayariga urged teachers to put all issues aside and teach to their best ability so that the standard of their schools would be improved to pave way for more parents to enroll their children, and assured them that all their grievances would be handled immediately to enable them to work even harder.

Mrs Florence Opare, Head teacher of the primary section, speaking on behalf of the school authorities expressed gratitude to the Minister for taking time to visit them.

She said the school comprising Primary and Junior High Schools still operated the shift system, and were not under the school feeding programme.

"Due to the shift system pupils have barely five hours to study but most often absent themselves due to family reasons and also report to school very late, making it difficult for them to mostly complete their syllabus," she stated.

Mrs Opare noted that, lack of potable water, textbooks, computer laboratory, furniture and encroachment of the school land were some major problems facing them.

She said although tankers sometimes provided the school with water, they barely knew the source making it difficult for them to make good use of it.

Mrs Opare called on the Government to review their salaries since most of them still had some monies deducted from their salaries, and called on parents to show some concern and participate in all activities regarding their children's education.