Teachers in schools that record 0% in BECE to be sacked – DCE

• Posted on March 12, 2014March 12, 2014
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The Agona East District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Martin Luther Obeng, has warned that all teachers whose schools will score zero per cent in the 2014 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in the district will be sacked from the district.

He indicated that teachers who would be affected would cease to be teachers in the district, as the assembly and the district directorate of education would recruit new teachers to take over from them.

Addressing a meeting of all basic school teachers in the district at Agona Nsaba, Mr Obeng said he could not fathom why teachers who were professionally trained and better  paid, as compared to most of the teachers in private basic schools, would teach throughout the year, only for all their students to fail in the BECE.

The well-attended meeting was to discuss the falling standards of education in the district and ways of addressing the situation.

He said the district had better educational infrastructure than other districts but, unfortunately, less-endowed districts were able to find themselves in the first 10 positions, while, out of the 160 districts, Agona East placed 128th in the 2013 BECE.

Mr Obeng explained that the results for his district were appalling and disappointing, since the district had about 70 per cent professional teachers who, through dedication and commitment, could improve on the performance of students in the 2014 BECE.

He added that teachers in the district would subsequently sign a performance contract with the district, which would be gazetted and would be binding on all teachers, stressing that the objective was to ensure that teachers in all the schools worked as a team to help reverse the falling standards of education in the district, especially at the basic level.

Performance indicators
According to the DCE, the reporting time for work in all the schools was 7:30 a.m. and that all teachers who reported for work late, as well as absentee teachers, would be sanctioned.

He said every school had a pass mark rate of 50 per cent, noting that teachers whose schools secured less than the 50 per cent target would not be promoted.

The only reason for which a teacher would be promoted if his or her school scored less than 50 per cent is that the students might have done well in a particular subject.

Mr Obeng indicated that the exercise was not to victimise anybody, saying it was being done in the interest of the district and to salvage the current poor academic performance of the students.

The Agona East District Director of Education, Mrs Mary Gillian Asare Addo, said the directorate would henceforth not shield absentee teachers, stressing that the move was aimed at improving the standard of education in the district.

She pointed out that some teachers had abandoned the classrooms to undertake sandwich programmes without the approval of the directorate, a situation which  contributes to falling standards of education in the district.

-Graphic online