A Deputy General Secretary at the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Kwame Dagbandow has suggested that teachers posted to rural areas should be given assurance of transfer once their fixed period of stay is due.

Speaking on Prime Mornining on Tuesday, Mr Dagbandow, who is in charge of Education and Professional Development at GNAT, explained that this is one of the ways to encourage teachers to accept posting to remote areas.

According to him, some rural areas are in very deplorable state and the environment is not welcoming enough to motivate teachers that are posted there, hence there should be a policy that gives a fixed period of time for teachers to stay in rural areas.

He added that when the time is due, the teachers could be transferred to the urban areas and thus give room for others to also be sent to the rural areas.

Mr Dagbandow believes that this initiative could serve as a motivation for teachers and make them accept to teach in these rural areas which will go a long way in increasing their numbers.

“There are areas where you won’t believe that they climb on top of trees to be able to get (telephone) network, look at the risk involved, everybody has to stand at that one point before you can communicate to the outside community, that’s challenging."

“We are saying that if we can have a policy of deploying teachers then we can say that, okay if you accept to be in this deprived area for about 2-3 years, we are moving you to a more developed area so that others could also go there,: he stated.

Mr Dagbandow said that he has never regretted entering into the teaching profession but urged the government and other stakeholders to invest more in it because there is a lot of work to be done.

This, he added, will help attract more individuals into the profession.