Childreach International and Ibis, both non
governmental organisations, are sponsoring 250 volunteer teachers through the Untrained Teachers� Diploma in Basic Education (UTDBE) to augment the pupil-teacher ratio in three districts of the Northern Region.
The districts are; Savelugu Nanton, Gushegu and Karaga.
The programme is a four-year-sandwich diploma and starts this academic year at Bagabaga Training College while the Diploma Certificates would be awarded by the University of Cape Coast.
Madam Elizabeth De-Souza, Northern Regional Director of Education, commended the NGOs for their efforts which could improve the quality of
education in the beneficiary districts.
She said: �The inclusion of ten hearing impaired persons in the programme must be lauded�.
Madam De-Souza said unless the Northern Region was able to get quality education through quality tuition from professional teachers, the
developmental gap between northern and southern Ghana would continue to widen.
Madam De-Souza expressed worry that teachers, especially those from the Northern Region, refused to serve in the deprived areas resulting in poor academic performance in those areas.
She said teachers must show commitment and dedication to teaching so as to achieve the desired results.
She urged the district assemblies to assist teachers to get accommodation as most of the teachers had decided to stay in Tamale and
commute to the districts with the excuse of lack of accommodation in the districts.
Mr Kavaarpuo Eric, Coordinator of Alliance for Change in Education (ACE), a programme under Ibis, said the NGO took the intervention to support the UTDBE programme due to the poor quality of education in some parts of the region.
He said 40 of the teachers were already benefiting from the UTDBE programme and were expected to graduate this year.
He said the Gushegu and Karaga Districts where the ACE operated had approximately 181 trained teachers and 603 untrained teachers and expressed the hope that the programme would increase the number of professional
teachers in those districts.
Nana Opoku, Board Chairman of Childreach International, said the NGO had been operating in the Savelugu Nanton District for the past years and had given several refresher courses to the volunteer teachers under its programmes and had improved the teacher�s quality of teaching.
He said eight of the volunteer teachers under the sponsorship of Childreach, had already completed their UTDBE programme adding that more
steps are also being taken to improve education in the district.
Mr Prince Askia Mohammed, District Chief Executive for Savelugu/Nanton, commended the NGOs for their efforts to complement that of
government in its quest to improve the standard of life of Ghanaians.
He said the quality of the human resource base of the country was paramount to the government hence the free school uniform and exercise books, continuation of the Capitation grant and school feeding programme.