Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch) has declared its intention to support the Ministry of Education (MoE) to monitor the posting of teachers to various schools across the country this year.

“Eduwatch’s foremost priority for 2022 is to support the MoE by monitoring teacher postings and teacher deployment in general," a statement issued in Accra on Monday disclosed.

This move comes after 44,000 teachers, constituting (over 15%) left the basic school system without replacements in 2021.

According to Eduwatch, although “ongoing efforts to recruit some 16,000 teachers is commendable, it does not even address the deficit half-way” hence the proposal to monitor teacher's postings.

Eduwatch also tasked the MoE to “ensure the posting of all teachers being recruited to deprived districts where they are needed”, adding that the postings should be “devoid of any protocol considerations.”

“In addition, the many districts with surplus teachers should be decongested, and teachers reposted to empty classrooms in deprived districts where they are most needed,” the education think tank added.

Touching on teacher trainee allowances, Eduwatch described the allowance as a ‘wasteful policy’. It explained that “the amount earmarked for spending on Teacher Trainee allowance in 2022 can recruit 6,000 more teachers that are urgently needed in rural schools.”

It, therefore called on MoE to scrap the teacher training allowance policy.