‘We need a generator’-Volta school for the deaf appeals

Imagine not being able to communicate with other persons, whenever power goes off…? This is the situation, in which students of the Volta school for the deaf in Hohoe found themselves, due to their hearing and speech impairment.

Because of the current power crisis, the students who communicate through sign language, can no longer interact in the evenings during power outages, as they unable to see and interpret their own ‘signings’ [gestures] in darkness.

The situation has therefore left with no option than to retire to early bed, since the school also lack a standby generator to remedy the situation.

Headmistress of the school, Madam Diddy Ntim told Volta Online in an interview that, the erratic power situation is adversely affecting school activities in the evenings and appealed to benevolent individuals and organizations to come to their aid.

“We use our eyes to see what we sign, so when the lights are off, everything goes mute, because we cannot communicate in darkness. So we need a standby generator to use in times of light off.. We’ will be grateful if people will support us.”

The school founded in 1971 and solely funded by the government of Ghana, currently has a population of about 400 students.

 Madam Ntim, has therefore asked for public support in terms of food items and sponsorships to complement government’s efforts in educating these children with special needs.

South Tongu GES falls on capitation grant to pay utility bills

Heads of some public basic schools in the South Tongu district of the Volta region are up in arms against the district education directorate for cutting down on their allocation of the capitation grant, being disbursed for running of the schools.

Information gathered by Voltaonline, revealed that, the education office levied each basic school pupil, 50pesewas and subsequently deducted it from their share of the capitation grant of GHc4.50 per child.

The amount which is lodged in a special account known as ‘District Support Levy’ is meant to help the office defray its debts to utility providers including the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

But some of the head teachers who are unhappy about the deduction noted that, it will adversely affect the smooth running of the schools, as they depend on the grant to supply teaching aids and other items needed to teach the pupils effectively.

Pencils of Promise to boost Education delivery in Volta region

Mr. Goba, director of PoP signing the MoU with Mr. Ganyaglo and Alhaji Haroon

In an era where the standard of Basic and Senior High school education in the Volta region continue to take a nose dive coupled with poor and inadequate classroom infrastructure, an educational charity organisation, Pencils of Promise (PoP) have officially entered into a Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with the Volta Regional Directorate of Education to help stem the situation.

The MoU, pave the way for PoP to complement government’s effort in providing classroom blocks and other teaching and learning materials for schools in deprived communities for the next five years. The charity organisation which started operations in 2012 has already built classrooms for 53 schools in 15 districts of the Volta region within the last two years.

Mr. Freeman Goba, Country Director of the organisation said Pencils of Promise is committed to providing 500 school blocks in Ghana by the end of 2015. This, he said is in fulfilment of the Organisation’s mission of bringing smiles on the faces of the less privileged, through the provision of shelter and logistics to deprived community schools.

Teachers locked out GES Boss; demands his interdiction

Outgoing Regional GES boss, Emmanuel Keteku, (L) with Successor (R)

Teachers and staff of Agortime-Ziope district directorate of the Ghana Education Service in the Volta region last Tuesday demonstrated against what they describe as the sordid state of affairs in the directorate under the directorship of Gershon Kofi Agyeman.

The about 400 aggrieved educations workers, clad in red armbands defy an early morning rain to besieged the premises of the directorate at Kpetoe, on the first day of reopening of schools to locked up the director’s office and demanded his interdiction.

They accused the director of financial mismanagement, autocracy and intimidation as well neglect of his official duties, a situation they claim has stalled progress of education delivery in the district since he took over three years ago.

A press release, read by the Public Relations Officer of directorate, Patrick Tekpor, on behalf of the protestors, stated that Mr Agyeman has been an absentee director who once a while, spends an hour or two in the office whenever he deemed it fit.

‘He has never scheduled any staff meeting since his arrival to discuss challenges confronting the directorate and education in the district and efforts to get the right things done prove futile.’

They also claim the director has sidestepped procurement procedures and unilaterally collect and spend budgetary allocations meant for schedule officers.  

Stop Petty trading during School hours

The deputy Minister of Education in charge of Tertiary Education, Mr Samuel Okudjeto Ablakwa has admonished teachers, who engage in side businesses during school hours to desist from such practices.

He expressed worry over how a good number of teachers in schools were engaging in the sales of rechargeable cards, selling of pastries in schools, driving taxis among others, to the detriment of their pupils.

A situation he likened to the proverbial biblical case of serving two masters and cautioned that, “as Christ told us long ago, you can’t serve two masters... You either sell credit cards or be a teacher, you can’t do the two”.

The deputy minister, who was commissioning an ultra-modern office complex for the Ketu North district Education directorate at Dzodze in the Volta region on Friday, said such bad practices coupled with other “serious management issues” were the cause of the fallen standard of education in the region and Ghana as a whole.

According to him, findings and analysis by the Ministry revealed that the inability of directors and managers to supervise and carry out managerial issues has brought about such bad practices including drunkenness and absenteeism.

He disclosed that “teacher absenteeism in the Volta region is the highest, over 45percent as compared to the national average of 27percent”.

He wondered why private basic schools which are bereft of qualified and underpaid teachers are rather doing better than public basic schools which has more qualified and better paid teachers, adding ‘the current situation is unacceptable because the performance of public second cycle and tertiary institutions are much better than the private ones, hence the need for the same results at the basic level.’

Mr. Ablakwa therefore charged education managers not to be “arm chair directors, relying on only paper reports and hearsay accounts” but also go to the field to ensure strict supervision and proper management of schools.