“Large numbers of teachers engaged in registration worrying”- Kwahu South DCE

Mr Joseph Omari, the Kwahu South District Chief Executive, has expressed unhappiness about the high number of teachers involved in the on-going biometric voters’ registration.

He said the situation is affecting effective teaching and learning in the basic schools and that as many as six teachers each was recruited by the Electoral Commission (EC) from Obo Methodist and Anglican Primary and Junior High Schools.

He said three teachers have been also engaged from the Mpraeso Presbyterian Primary and Nana Ampadu Memorial Primary Schools also at Mpraeso for the exercise.

Mr Omari said this when addressing the first ordinary meeting of the second session of the Assembly at Mpraeso on Tuesday.

He said despite the initial assurance from the Ghana Education Service (GES) that it would not allow teachers to vacate their posts for the biometric registration exercise, a large number of them had been recruited for the exercise.

Mr Omari said unfortunately, this was taking place at the time when final year pupils and students were about to write Basic Education Certificate Examination and the West African Secondary School Certificate Examination.

He said the EC should have engaged National Service persons most of whom are Higher National Diploma (HND) holders who are mostly computer literates and the unemployed graduates in the system for the exercise and allowed the teachers to be in the classrooms to teach.

Mr Yaw Peprah, the District Electoral Officer, was later invited to the Assembly meeting to explain why he recruited many teachers for the exercise.

He explained that those who applied for the exercise did not state that they were teachers adding that it was also difficult for him to get computer literates in the rural areas to undertake the exercise.**