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Eduwatch Urges Government to Restrict Teacher Recruitment to only Deprived Districts.
Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch) has called for a carefully controlled approach to teacher recruitment and deployment in line with the government’s proposed policy direction.
The organisation emphasised that any new recruitment exercise should focus strictly on deprived districts, where there is a significant shortage of teachers. It noted that thousands of classrooms across the country remain without teachers, making it necessary to prioritise areas with the greatest need.
The Executive Director, Kofi Asare, made this position known in a Facebook post, stressing that recruitment clearance and postings must be directed exclusively to districts experiencing teacher deficits. He further indicated that District Directors of Education should be held responsible for how teachers are deployed within their jurisdictions.
He added that for the policy to succeed, civil society organisations must be granted access to teacher placement data to enable effective monitoring and reporting. He also pointed out that eliminating political, traditional, and religious interference in teacher distribution would significantly improve fairness and efficiency in the system.
According to him, allowing teachers to choose preferred posting locations could worsen existing disparities, as many may continue to favour urban areas. His remarks follow the announcement by John Dramani Mahama regarding plans to open the recruitment portal, with a policy shift aimed at directing postings to districts with teacher shortages.
Under this proposed arrangement, urban municipalities, regional capitals, and metropolitan areas that already have sufficient teachers are expected to be excluded from the upcoming recruitment exercise to ensure a more equitable distribution of teaching staff.