Teachers at Tsledom M/A Basic School get 9-unit bungalow

Teachers at the Tsledom M/A Basic school in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipal of the Eastern Region can now heave a sigh of relief over their age-old accommodation challenges, thanks to the benevolence of Miss Mercy Tettey, an Australia-based Ghanaian philanthropist and missionary who has come to their rescue.

The school established in 1974 had to contend with accommodation challenges over the past 49 years without a befitting housing for its teaching staff.

GhanaWeb in a February 16, 2022 publication noted that the teachers, due to the lack of accommodation were forced on a daily basis to ply several kilometers through a dusty, deplorable, and rocky mountainous road to reach the community to teach.

The publication also highlighted the lack of teachers to handle academic activities at the school.

As part of her efforts to contribute her quota to national development, the philanthropist on Friday, commissioned a 9-unit accommodation facility to address the accommodation problems of the teaching staff who had to commute on a daily basis to and from school.

The project which took three years to put up is fitted with solar panels to enable the teachers access light as well as use basic electrical gadgets.

That was not all, she also donated a 50-inch Sony television set to the school for educational and recreational purposes.

This is not the first time the missionary is coming to the aid of the people of Tsledom. In 2019, she provided a GhC 17,000 borehole facility for the community.

Mercy Tettey explained that the plight of the teachers touched her heart compelling her to raise personal resources to put up a comfortable place of abode for them.

According to her, it was imperative for teachers to have a decent accommodation facility to complement their efforts towards providing tuition for the students.

“I have heard that now the education is free so if the education is free now and the teachers are having problem for where they’ll sleep to teach the children then it is my duty to also provide them with some place to sleep so that they can teach our children free,” she said.

The missionary expressed hope that the provision of the facility would encourage more teachers to accept postings to the rural area to teach the students.

“It is not easy to stay in the village to teach people so this one will motivate the teachers, when they post them here, they’ll come and teach,” she noted.

Mercy Tetteh was hopeful of extending further support to other deprived communities in the near future and expressed her readiness to do so when the need arises.

She urged the teachers to put in their best for the pupils and encouraged the pupils to also study hard to become responsible adults.

Municipal Director of Education, Samuel Tettey commended the headmaster and students for their resilience and sacrifices to teach the children and record excellent grades in the annual BECE even in the face of the harsh conditions that pertained such as accommodation and lack of teachers.

According to him, the education directorate under his strenuous leadership familiarised himself with the various schools in the municipality to appreciate the challenges confronting the schools.

He commended Mercy Tettey on her exemplary works to contribute her quota to education in the country as according to him, government alone could not shoulder the burden of education, adding that her benevolence would in the end ensure that the students received sound education from their teachers.

Samuel Tettey admitted that the school lacked enough teachers but assured the headmaster and the community that enough teachers would be deployed to the school as soon as new postings were made to the district.

The municipal education director however urged the teachers to ensure a good maintenance culture of the new facility to ensure that it lasts long to serve its purpose.

He commended the former School Help Education Programme (SHEP) Coordinator for Lower Manya Krobo and now Eastern Regional Coordinator, Godfred Ofoe Caesar for his tremendous support towards the school and the community at large.

The director received the keys of the building from Mercy Tetteh who also handed it over to the headmaster of the school, David Kofi Teye.

On his part, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Lower Manya Krobo, Simon Kweku Tetteh proposed the establishment of a special incentive package in collaboration with the education directorate to persuade teachers to accept postings to the school.

He reiterated president Akuffo-Addo’s commitment to education in the country through the implementation of the free SHS policy.

Stressing on government’s commitment to education in the country, the Assembly chief while noting that educational infrastructure was being rolled out across the municipal said government was doing its part to ensure that adequate infrastructure was provided for the sector.

Mr. Tetteh noted that teachers played a vital role in the development of their communities, hence, the need to motivate them by providing shelter over their heads as befitting accommodation would help improve teaching and learning, and also improve selflessness among the staff.

The MCE also promised to provide school uniforms for the students and encouraged them to take their studies seriously.

Headmaster of the school, David Kofi Teye while reiterating the difficulties teachers went through said the school nevertheless boasted of sterling performances in various sports and academic activities, scoring 100% BECE passes between 2016 and 2020.

Unfortunately, he said the exodus of some of its teachers in 2020 to undertake further studies leaving only two teachers to handle teaching activities affected its output in the 2021 exams, dropping from its 100% performance to 62.7%.

He therefore appealed to the Ghana Education Service to ensure that more teachers were sent to the school to help the school restore its enviable academic performance.

The headmaster on behalf of the staff, pupils and entire community presented a citation to Madam Tettey in gratitude of her commitment to the welfare of the school and entire Tsledom community.