By Murtala Issah
A new study by School for Life has revealed a major imbalance in teacher deployment between rural and urban areas in Northern Ghana, raising concerns about educational inequality and the long-term development of disadvantaged communities.
The 2023 research shows that many rural schools are operating without professional teachers, while others rely on just one or two staff to run entire schools. This shortage, the study warns, is severely affecting learning outcomes and deepening poverty in already marginalised areas.
At a press conference on the findings, School for Life, in partnership with the Northern Network for Education Development (NNED), criticised the current centralised teacher posting system, describing it as a major cause of staffing shortages, poor teacher discipline, and limited accountability.
The report found that 68% of teaching vacancies in rural schools remain unfilled. The centralised system also undermines the implementation of the mother tongue (L1) policy, as teachers are often posted to regions where they do not speak the local language, reducing the effectiveness of instruction.
Education quality continues to decline, with data from selected basic schools showing that four out of every six pupils scored an aggregate of 30 or above in their final assessments, a sign of falling academic performance.
Speaking at the press briefing, spokesperson for the Complementary Basic Education (CBE) Alliance, Amadu Zulyedine, stressed the need for urgent policy reforms.
“A decentralised teacher recruitment and deployment system offers better prospects for improving learning outcomes, teacher accountability, and retention than the existing centralised system,” he said.
Stakeholders are urging the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to decentralise teacher recruitment and deployment, arguing that empowering district education offices to manage staffing would ensure schools are matched with teachers who understand the local context and are more likely to remain in post.
The report adds to growing calls for targeted education reforms in northern Ghana, where persistent disparities in education continue to hinder broader national development.
