Rate of teacher absenteeism declines

The Ministry of Education has revealed that teacher absenteeism has further declined to 7 percent.

A deputy Minister of Education in charge of pre-tertiary institutions Alex Kyeremeh who mentioned this to Accra-based 3FM said this has been an improvement from the 9 percent rate earlier this year.

“We appealed to the teacher unions and they helped. We also worked with the district and municipal and metropolitan district assemblies and now we have moved from 27 per cent to 19 per cent to 12 per cent to 9 per cent and to 7 percent.”

Kyeremeh attributed the gradual reduction of teacher absenteeism to the strict measures put in place by the Ministry of Education and other stakeholders to tackle the issue.

He said that the Brong Ahafo and Upper East Regions recorded the lowest teacher absenteeism rates in the country. The two regions recorded 2 percent as against the national rate of 7 percent.

Kyeremeh said the Ministry is working tirelessly to continuously eradicate teacher absenteeism in public pre-tertiary schools in the country.

The National Inspectorate Board (NIB) of the Ghana Education Service in 2013 mentioned teacher absenteeism as a major challenge for quality education in the country.