TECAHER DEFICIT - 24,560 NEEDED.

TECAHER DEFICIT - 24,560 NEEDED.

THE Minister of Education, Mr. Alex Tettey-Enyo has revealed that the ministry has only 8,625 teachers to fill the over 33,185 vacancies available across the country.
Mr. Tettey-Enyo explained that these vacancies exist mostly in the most deprived communities in the country.
To address the situation, the minister informed theparliament that the Ministry of Education has developed a new manual to facilitate the re-engagement of 20,000 pupil teachers who exited under the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) last year.
Mr. Tettey-Enyo said this in parliament when he was invited to answer questions from some members of the house. He assured government was treating the issue as a serious one.
He also informed the house that other measure being implemented by the ministry included the untrained teacher diploma in basic education programme and that there were several measures under consideration by his ministry.
According to him, the problem is further compounded by the refusal of some trained teachers to accept postings to deprived communities across the country.
He assured the house that government would fill vacancies in those deprived communities in the 2010 academic year.
A check by “The Evening Eye” in some selected public schools in the Greater Accra Region revealed that there are enough teachers in most of the schools.
It was again discovered that there are a number of teachers wanting postings to Accra and other regional capitals, indicating that the teacher deficit existed mostly in the rural and most deprived communities.
Earlier in the week, the Dean of the Faculty of Education, University of Cape Coast, Professor Francis K. Amedahe called on teacher training institutions to move away from the traditional teacher training of accommodating teachers to off-campus training to reduce the teacher deficit.
According to him, there were no enough facilities in the institutions to allow for the intake of the required numbers to address the situation.
Prof. Amedahe also called on the government to improve on the facilities in those schools to allow for the training of more teachers.

Dress code, decency must be the watch word

I wish to congratulate the leadership of the church of Pentecost for softening its stand on the issue of dressing to church though some members of the church are not in favour of the directive.

What the church of Pentecost and all other churches should be doing at this time with regards to the matter of dressing to church is to concentrate on encouraging their members to dress decently whether in trousers or not.

I have observed that the church of Pentecost, and some other churches have over the years been used as the measuring tape when it comes to the issue of dressing to church.

Now that those have the measuring tape have lost it, what then becomes the yard stick? This means that the issues are not necessary about wearing or not wearing one thing or the other to the place of worship.

The concern should to trousers, covering or not covering of hairs, among others things. This I call some of the hypocrisies within the Christian fraternity because some ladies wear trousers at home, to the office, market and other social gathering. It must be made clear that God does not exist only in the chapel, so whatever Christian do outside of the chapel is of equal importance as what they do in the chapel.

Christians must begin to appreciate the fact that Christianity is not a stage, rather, a process or better still a way of life that must be lived. Therefore, our dressing to church must not be different from the way we dress to the office, market or to any other social gathering.

Surprisingly, some ladies dress to the house of God exposing their underwear. Some others dress in the, “prescribed kaba” exposing their breast in the congregation whether deliberately or not, I cannot tell. I am only at a loss why this fashion of dressing to expose certain parts of the body has become so common that even some ushers in our churches are enjoying this ungodly fashion.

About a week ago, I attended a singles-summit in Accra organized by a youth group. During the presentation, one of the speakers discouraged ladies from cooking and washing for their fiancés. The speaker went on to say that Christian ladies must not visit their boyfriends without the presence of a third party while they are dating.

One of the reasons given by the speakers was that, the act has the potential of encouraging or leading to sexual intercourse.

This, I disagree and called for a holistic education in the church on how to maintain the purity and holiness of whatever relationship we are in. if we do not visit each other how do we get to know ourselves better before marriage. No wonder the rate of divorce is on the increase even within Christian marriages.

Back to the issue of the Pentecostal dress code, I want to refer all Christians to I Corinthians 7:19 which talks about the nothingness of circumcision or uncircumcision, wearing or not wearing of trousers to church.

Again, Romans 13:13 and I Timothy 2:9-10 mentioned that the watchword in whatever thing we do as Christians must be decency coupled with the will and purpose of God, be it in the church, office or in the home. What should be of concern to the church of God and not the church of Pentecost alone is how to keep to the word of God, for all shall pass, but the word of God.

I want to encourage the Sekondi/Takoradi area head, Apostle Antwi to intensify education on decent dress in the church and let them abide by it rather than the old way of thinking that don’t wear this or that without touching on the heart issue.

In the years past ladies wear vest, which in my candid opinion prevent the indecent exposure of pants and beads, is it finish on the market?