June 6, 2016 By Joseph S. Margai
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has finally promised to end the issue of ‘ghost teachers’ by July 2016 after several years of battling to clear the payroll.
It could be recalled that the Ministry has over the years received lots of criticisms for its ‘negligence’ to include names of teachers, who have taught for many years, into the government payroll. The Ministry on the other hand has claimed that they have been busy weeding out ‘ghost teachers’.
Presenting the Ministry’s position in the President’s Recovery Priorities recently at Family Kingdom, Director of the Inspectorate Directorate, Mohamed Sillah Sesay, said there were still many ghost teachers on the payroll.
He said the Ministry needed the sum of one million United States Dollars ($1m) to clear the payroll, but disclosed that they have already secured 20 percent of that fund.
“We hope to clear the payroll and end this ‘ghost teacher’ issue by July 2016. By August to November this year, we hope to approve teachers’ allocation strategy. By April to June 2017, we hope to have completed the teachers’ re-allocation into the payroll,” he said.
Sesay further said that the Ministry hoped to reduce unapproved schools by June 2017.
He disclosed that plans were underway to reduce overcrowding in classrooms by June 2017, adding that by November to January 2017; the Ministry would have constructed 225 additional classrooms.
He added that by June 2017, one thousand classrooms should have been completely furnished.
Plans, he said were also underway to train 20,000 teachers that would be handling the two core subjects-mathematics and English language.
The Inspectorate Directorate Director said the Ministry has introduced a school feeding program in order to encourage pupils to stay in schools, adding that that only government and government-assisted schools would benefit from the program.
He said the school feeding program in all 14 districts would take three phases-the first phase will target 10 percent of the schools in the country, the second phase 40 percent, while the third phase would target 50 percent.
“Currently, 400,000 pupils in 12 districts are getting a take-home dry ration. This school feeding program is an ambitious one that the government hoped to sustain during the recovery process,” he said.