TEACHER POPULATION

There are about Eight Hundred, Sixty Four (864) total number of teachers who teachers from the KG to the JHS made up of four hundred and one (401) Females and Four Hundred and Sixty Three (463) Males.

Formal education in the Kwahu East District is provided by both public and private sectors.  However, the public sector dominates.  There are all levels of education from pre-school through primary, J.S.S., vocational/technical to University except Polytechnic.  The table below shows the number in the various levels.

       Table 1.32:   Level of Education

NO.	LEVEL	2010	2011	2012	2013
PUBLIC SCHOOLS	KG	55	55	56	60
	Primary	66	68	68	68
	J.H.S.	34	34	34	40
	SHS	5	5	5	5
	Technical/Voc	3	3	3	3
	Tertiary	1	1	1	1
	Total	164	166	167	177
PRIVATE SCHOOLS	KG	8	9	15	17
	Primary	11	11	12	17
	J.H.S.	6	7	7	8
	SHS	2	2	2	2
	Technical/Voc	0	0	0	0
	Tertiary	2	2	2	2
	Total	29	31	38	46

SOURCE:          KEDA-DDE, 2014

 

Gender parity (ratio between girls’ and boys’ enrolment rate) is not favourable in the district as records show that a disparity between girls and girls. However, parity has been improving since 2010 from as low as 0.8 to 0.91 in 2013. This indicates female:male ratio of almost one as shown in Table 1.33.

Table 1.33: Gender Parity

Indicator	2010	2011	2012	2013
Primary	0.8	0,89	0.91	0.91
JHS	0.88	0.88	0.92	0.87
SHS	n/a	0.64	0.61	0.70

Source: KEDA-DDE, 2014

The table below summarizes the student/pupil enrolment by level and sex.  Generally, the enrolment levels for females are lower than their male counterparts.  The enrolment levels especially for females (50%) compares favourably with that of males (50%) at the lower levels but keeps decreasing as the level increases and decreases sharply at the higher levels of education.

The enrolment at the pre-school is not encouraging as compared to the enrolment at the primary level.  This could be explained by the fact that most of the children enter the primary school without going through the pre-school.

Table 1.34: School enrolment by levels and sex (2010 – 2013)

	2010/2011					2011/2012					2012/2013					2013/2014
Level	Male		Female		Total	Male		Female		Total	Male		Female		Total	Male		Female		Total
No./%	No	%	No	%		No	%	No	%		No	%	No	%		No	%	No	%
KG	2600	50	2604	50	5204	2956	48.9	3093	51.1	6049	2622	50.3	2592	49.7	5214	2492	49.7	2521	50.3	5013
Primary	6151	53.6	5329	46.4	11480	6860	53.4	5938	46.6	12848	6001	53.3	5266	46.7	11267	6107	53.2	5372	46.8	11479
JHS	2254	56.4	1742	43.6	3996	2226	55.6	1780	44.4	4006	2216	57.0	1669	43.0	3885	2180	55.6	1744	44.4	3924
SHS	3992	67.4	1932	32.6	5924	3745	65.4	1984	34.6	5729	3984	62.3	2409	37.7	6393	3324	62.8	1968	37.2	5292
Tec/Voc	766	68.8	347	31.2	1113	900	70.3	381	29.7	1281	808	62.2	492	37.8	1300	583	80.3	143	19.7	726
Total	15763		11954		27717	16687		13176		29913	15631		12428		28059		14686	11748		26434

Source: KEDA-DDE, 2014

 

Staffing in Schools

Staffing in schools in the District is skewed in favour of the peri-urban areas as most Teachers find it difficult to stay in the rural communities which lack basic amenities as electricity, water and good road network. Those who accept postings to such areas normally absent themselves from school on Mondays as they tend to spend the weekends away from their stations. An improvement in the conditions of the rural areas coupled with incentive packages for Teachers who accept postings to such deprived areas will therefore go a long way in attracting more Teachers to teach there.

In terms of availability of Teachers in the District, the situation can be said to be relatively favourable compared to other jurisdictions even though a lot more has to be done to attract more qualified Teachers. The pupil/Teacher Ratio in public KG and Primary Schools is 27:1 and 29:1 respectively while that of the JHS and SHS is 15:1 and 19:1. Below is a table showing the various levels of education and the teacher population by gender.

Table 1.35: Teacher Population in public schools

Level	Total school enrolment	Trained		Untrained		Total	P:T Ratio
		Male	Female	Male	Female
KG	2013	13	83	4	84	184	27:1
Primary	11479	154	137	71	28	390	29:1
JHS	3924	157	56	37	9	259	15:1
SHS	5292	204	50	27	3	284	19:1

Source: KEDA-DDE, 2014

Teacher Vacancies

Vacancies continue to exist in most of the schools in the district, particularly, rural schools. Records also show a large population of untrained Teachers which does not auger well for effective academic work as such Teachers most often lack the requisite pedagogical skills. The situation is however being addressed by the organization of Top-Up courses by some Colleges of Education for untrained Teachers at the basic schools while the Universities of Eduction and Cape Coast are also noted for providing a similar facility to untrained graduate Teachers to make them professionals. Records show an actual existing vacancy at the Primary school level as 246 and 22 at the JHS level (Table 1.36)

 

Table 1.36: Teacher Vacancies at basic education level

Level	Number of Teachers required in the district A	No. of Trained Teachers at post   B	No. of Untrained Teachers at post C	Vacancies including Untrained Teachers D=A-(B+C)	Actual Vacancies   E=D-C
Primary	746	315	185	431	246
JHS	281	213	46	68	22
Total	1027	528	231	499	268

Source: KEDA-DDE, 2014

Academic Performance

Academic performance over the past four years has not been commensurable to the quantum of investment made in the education sub-sector. The district therefore needs to put in place radical measures to improve on the academic performance going forward.  Records on Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) from 2010 to 2013 give a gloomy picture of declining academic performance at the basic level. In the 2009/2010 academic year the overall academic performance at the BECE was 45.9%.  This performance dropped to 40% in the 2012/2013 academic year.  The performance of students in the district therefore leaves much to be desired and it is the responsibility of all stakeholders to reassess the situation and devise the needed solution to address it.

It is for this reason that the need to strengthen the role of School Management Committees (SMCs) in all the basic schools becomes crucial. Presently, the total number of schools with functioning SMCs at the JHS level is 41 meaning all the schools have SMCs. However, their functionality must be critically examined in a bid to strengthening them to perform. The Assembly also has the onrous responsibility of ensuring that Teachers achieve results through the provison of the requisite logistics in schools and support the Monitoring Unit of the Directorate to be effective in their work.

The Education Oversite Committee also has the responsibility to demand results from Head Teachers and Circuit Supervisors by signing Performance Contracts with them.

The initiative of some of the communities such as Nkwatia to organize periodic Mock Exams for all the public schools and holding Easter Quiz Competions must be supported and encouraged. Table 1.37 and Fig 1.15 show performance of the District from 2010 to 2013 and a taget for 2014.

 

Table 1.37: Performance at BECE from 2010 to 2013

SUMMARY OF BECE RESULTS	2009/10 Actual	2010/11 Actual	2011/12 Actual	2012/13 Actual	2013/14 Target
Total number of participating Schools	38	37	39	41	41
Total Enrolment in JHS 3	994	1052	899	1032	1072
Total number of candidates Registered	994	1052	899	1032	1072
Total number of Candidates Absent	4	12	9	6	8
Total number of Candidates Present	990	1042	890	1026	1064
Total number of Candidates passed	458	409	394	413	638
Total number of Candidates Failed	532	642	496	613	426
Percentage passed	45.9%	38.8%	44%	40%	60%
Percentage failed	54.1%	61.2%	56%	60%	40%
Total number of candidates with aggregate 06	1	2	0	0	1
Total number of candidates with aggregate 07-15	71	36	25	38	43
Total number of schools scoring 0%	2	5	3	7	0

   Source: KEDA-DDE, 2014

Government Interventions in Education

A number of Government Intervention initiatives that are being implemented in the District have in no small measure contributed to school enrolment, retention and to some extent academic performance. It is therefore hoped that those being implemented on pilot bases as of now will be rolled out to benefit all schools to receive the needed impact. This section looks at the number of interventions in the District.

1. Capitation Grant

The introduction of the Capitation Grant and the subsequent increase in grant per pupil from GH¢3.00 to GH¢4.50 has contributed immensely to smooth school management and has served as motivation to parents and guardians to send their wards to school as they longer pay school fees. School enrolment has seen marginal increases which are partly attributed to the introduction of the capitation grant in schools.  The grant has to some extend reduce the burden on parents in educating their wards because parents who could not afford to educate their wards cannot do so hence more children in schools. It is however hoped that the teething challenges associated with undue delay in the release of the grants would be addressed.

1. Ghana School Feeding Programme

The school feeding programme covered eight schools as at 2010/2011 academic year but increased to 13 in the 2011/2012 academic year. The beneficiary population also doubled from 1800 in 2009 to 3600 in 2012. The programme has contributed immensely to school enrolment and retention in the rural areas. It is hoped that it will be extended to cover the rest of the schools. So far no adverse reports have been received by the Assembly in respect of the performance of Caterers engaged on the Programme except for the eratic nature of transfer of funds which sometimes compel Caterers to suspend their services.

1. Elimination of schools under trees

Implementation of the initiative was timely as most of the schools in the district were either hoding classes in makeshift structures or under trees for instance Suntre R/C Primary was a tytpical school under tree. A total of six school projects were initiated in 2010. However, only two have been fully completed for use while the remaining four have been abandoned at various completion stages for non-payment of Contractors. The GETfund Secretariat must as a matter of agency release funds to ensure continuation and completion as the situation has negatively affected academic work in the schools concerned.

1. Supply of free school uniforms

Under the free school uniform programme, the District distributed 3000 pieces to school pupils in especially the rural areas. In all 1400 (47%) were boys while 1600 (53%) were girls. The programme is seen as a big relief to the rural communities which benefited as some of the pupils were either without school uniforms or the old ones they were wearing were tattered and torn. It is hoped that the programme will contribute to encouraging the rural poor to send their children to school.

1. Supply of free exercise books

A total of 95,232 exercise books were allocated to the district for distribution to school pupils at the basic level in 2010 which continued and ended in 2012. The distribution of the books was hailed by parents in the District as one of the most innovative ways of making education more accessible to the poor.

Educational Infrastructure/Facilities Situation

The existence of good educational infrastructure enhances teaching and learning. The school infrastructure in the District is in comparatively good condition while it continues to receive the attention of the Assembly and Government especially in recent times. However, a lot more work need to be done to ensure that all schools are provided with congenial atmosphere for teaching and learning. Table 1.37 provides detail infrastructure need in the education subsector within the 2014 – 2017 DMTDP.

Regarding school sanitation, as many as 59 schools are without toilet facilities or urinals. A condition which negatively affects the interest of not only female Teachers, but adolescent girls in the school as they are always conscious of invasion of their privacy. The Assembly should therefore provide the affected schools with the needed sanitation facilities in order to promote girl-child education in the District.

 

Table 1.38: School infrastructure requirement

Level	2-Unit Classroom Block	3-Unit Classroom Block	6-Unit Classroom Block	Toilet/Unirinal
NEW
KG	19	–	–	4
Primary	–	1	2	8
JHS	–	6	–	5
SHS	–	2	3	2
Total	19	9	5	19
REHABILITATION/CLADDING
Level	KG	Primary	JHS	SHS
Number	5	7	5	0

Source: KEDA-DDE, 2014