A total of 6,776 vacancies have been declared in second cycle schools across the country but the number of teachers returning from study leave with or without pay are 3,826. This means only 56 percent of the vacancies would be filled with the remaining 44 unattended to. Ms Naana Biney, Deputy Director General of Ghana Education Service (GES) made this known when she opened the fifth annual workshop for posting of GES staff returning from study leave for the year 2007 in the Central Region on Tuesday. The workshop brought together participants from GES offices in the various regions to ensure that teachers returning from the tertiary institutions were equitably distributed to all the 10 regions. Ms. Biney said most teachers refused posting to the rural communities and remained in urban schools that already had more than their teacher requirement, while rural and deprived schools continued to suffer lack of trained teachers. "I therefore entreat you not to let this workshop be just one of those we attend annually but please help GES to extend quality teaching and learning to the deprived schools by posting at least 80 per cent of teachers to the rural communities." Ms. Biney called on the participants to follow the posting guidelines and ensure that teachers who wanted to relocate from the regions and districts of posting were not accepted in any other region. "Adhere to this caution to avoid imbalance in the distribution of teachers as well as thwarting the efforts of the GES to achieve equity in its distribution of teachers", she added. Mrs. Nancy Opoku, Director of Human Resource Management and Development said the workshop was also aimed at ensuring that teachers got to know the regions and schools to which they had been posted to enable them report at post by September when the academic year begins. Ms Rosemond Blay, Central Region Director of Education who chaired the meeting said teachers played an important role in the new Education Reform and therefore called on teachers to accept and stay at post to enhance quality education delivery. Source: GNA