Accra Mayor Alfred Vanderpuije has said children in public schools deserved quality education and charged teachers to raise the level of education with the abolition of the shift system. “The shift system is not ending for ending sake but to enable the children have eight hours of instruction instead of the four hours under that system”. Addressing teachers on abolition of the shift system in public schools in the Metropolis on the theme: “Quality Education – a must for all children”, the Accra Mayor stated that no school within the Metropolis would operate the shift system when basic schools reopen mid September this month. He said all the 170,000 pupils within the Municipality, had been assigned to physical structures to receive eight hours of quality teaching. “The Assembly, working with churches, heads of private schools and individual property owners, has secured enough structures and in some cases built temporary ones to be used as classrooms for the education of our children,” Dr Vanderpuije said. He appealed to teachers to help improve the low educational standards and to eliminate elements that discredit public schools and label them as unproductive urging the teachers to “set high standards, raise the bar very high and be tough to make sure that every child of school going age is in school at the correct time”. The mayor also asked teachers not to accept indiscipline and make sure that the eight hours of instruction was interspersed with social activities so that learning did not become boring and that the Assembly would support extra curriculum activities. School heads, he said, should involve parents, monitor teachers and pupils for productiveness and give no room for activities that would mar the beauty of moving education in the Metropolis into a higher level. The mayor, who is also a teacher, said the qualities of a good teacher included a positive mental attitude and being role models for the pupils. Dr Vanderpuije said the schools would be opened to parents and pupils on September 13th and that pupil must report to their current schools so that those who had been reassigned to new locations would be directed to the new sites. The Assembly has requested for the services of 200 teaching assistants under the National Youth Employment Programme to support teachers in the schools. Heads of schools have been asked to report to school on September 11 to prepare their schools and display the list of schools that had been transferred to other sites and also receive new furniture. Source: GNA