The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) is appealing to government to factor the accommodation for teachers that accept postings to remote areas of the country and staff common rooms into the construction of basic schools.

According to the Association, teachers posted to the remote places do not have accommodation and the basic schools built do not have staff common rooms that would promote effective academic activities.

At the Association’s 6th Quadrennial delegates conference at the Mfantseman Municipality, Central Regional Chairman of GNAT, Rev. Isaac Owusu, expressed their unhappiness with how schools are built in the country without staff common rooms.

“What has become the common practice in the absence of the staff common rooms is that teachers sit under trees and mark the exercises of school pupils. And this is not good enough,” he stated.

They also point out that teachers posted to remote communities across the country do not have accommodation because provisions have not been made for them.

Central Regional Chairman of GNAT, Rev. Dr Isaac Owusu says such developments do not create a conducive environment for academic activities and may affect the output of teachers.

“Accommodation for teachers and our office is becoming a challenge. Teachers have been posted to remote areas and they are not getting places to lay down their heads in order to have the peace of mind to teach.

“Why should the employer put up school buildings without factoring accommodation for teachers and staff common rooms,” he lamented.

Dr Isaac Owusu was lamented about how teachers suffer after they go on pension and asked government to as a matter of necessary work to ensure quick fixes of the challenge to put smiles on the faces of teachers that retire.

“It’s unacceptable for a teacher who works for 25 years to retire with just ¢5,000. That’s just unacceptable! It’s about that something is done about it,” he said.

Municipal Chief Executive for Mfantseman, Kenneth Essuman, indicated that the assembly would factor in the staff common rooms in all built schools after a careful study of the situation.

The conference’s theme was “sustaining the gains of the Union in the Mfantseman for our survival in the 21st Century.”