Teachers who accept posting to rural areas to get 20% pay rise

Teachers who accept posting to rural areas will get 20% pay rise as financial compensation to motivate them to improve on their performance.

Government is at an advanced stage of instituting a Rural Area Allowance for such teachers, which is currently being considered by the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC),  before implementation.

Public Affairs Director of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Charles Parker-Allotey who disclosed this on the Super Morning Show on Joy FM, Friday, said the policy forms part of measures by government to take care of the shortfall of teachers in rural areas especially, the three northern regions -Northern, Upper West and Upper East.

Further to that, the Service will continue to implement the existing policy of posting newly trained teachers to begin their teaching practice in rural areas, Mr. Parker-Allotey stated.

“…Governemt has indicated its preparedness to put up a 20% increment in the pay of those teachers who will accept rural posting [Rural Area Allowance]…We haven’t started implementing it but we’ve gone a long way in the negotiating process [with FWSC],” he said.  

Hundreds of schools in the Northern Region, one of the most deprived areas in the country, are in dire need of more than 7,600 trained teachers. About 404 schools in the region do not have a single trained teacher, leaving the running of the educational establishments in the care of volunteers and untrained teaching personnel.

But Mr. Parker-Allotey says government is doing its best to reverse the situation.

According to him, 18,000 formerly untrained teachers, have been assisted to go through formal training, through programmes sponsored by development partners.

“We are looking at the situation and then when we are implementing the rationalisation exercise you will see that more teachers will be posted to the north,” he told the Show host, Kojo Yankson.