A coalition of concerned job applicants in the just ended Ghana Education Service Science and Mathematics teacher recruitment exercise from the three northern regions have challenged the Service to publish results of the aptitude test that saw just fifteen out of four hundred and ninety five people been selected from the three Northern Regions.
According to them, they have been unfairly treated considering the number of persons selected compared to the number of people who sat for the examination and is calling on the Director General to give explanations on the criteria used in the selection process.
The coalition said “We have noticed that over 90 percent of those posted to the three northern regions to teach various subjects are from the southern part of the country at the expense of us those who live here and are willing to serve our people. Meanwhile no body from the Tamale Centre was posted southwards,” but indicated that “Please note that we are not trying to be tribal bias or discriminatory here, just that we believe in equal opportunity for all considering the fact that we are all Ghanaians.”
They added “One obvious observation also made was that, almost all our colleagues we have contacted who took the exam in other centers were successfully posted. Our simple question again is why was it so? Are they telling us that about the 96.9 percent of all applicants who wrote the exam at the Tamale Centre did not pass or is it the case that all our exam sheets did not get to the head office from the Tamale WAEC Centre for assessment?”
They are therefore calling on Director General of Ghana Education Service and the Minister of Education to intervene and ensure that we are all treated equally.
Below is the full statement
COALITION OF CONCERN JOB APPLICANTS IN THE JUST ENDED GES SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS TEACHER RECRUITMENT EXERCISE FROM THE THREE NORTHERN REGIONS
We members of the above mentioned union on this 8th day of August 2016, wish to express our deepest displeasure and disappointment about the criteria and selection procedure employed by the Ghana Education Service in recruiting about two thousand four hundred (2400) Science, Mathematics, Geography and English teachers into various second cycle schools across the country. We believe we those who wrote the aptitude test at the Tamale WAEC Centre which comprised of applicants resident in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions were unfairly treated during the final selection process. Amongst our numerous concerns include but not limited to the following:
About four hundred and ninetyfive (495) job applicants from the three northern regions took part in the test at the Tamale WAEC Centre, out of this number about 183 wrote science, 99 mathematics, 150 geography and 63 English. Comparing this number of applicants who took the exams against those finally selected, we realized that only one (1) person was posted to the northern region to teach science out of the 183 applicants who wrote the science paper. For that of mathematics no body from the Tamale Centre was selected out of the about 99 applicants who took the exams. The simple question is how come? Did they all fail or it was a deliberate attempt to reject them all?When you also look at Geography, out of about 150 applicants who were shortlisted for the exams, only seven (7) persons qualified per their criteria which equally beg for explanations. Also another seven (7) applicants from about 63 persons who took the English paper were also considered.
From the above statistics, we the concern applicants from the three northern regions believe we were unfairly treated by GES and maybe we need further explanation from the Director General on the selection criteria used to disqualify almost about 96.9 percent of we those from the Tamale Centre, and only considered 15 applicants which represents an infinitesimal 3.03 percent of the overall 2400 qualified applicants posted. If it was based solely on the exam performance,then we will be more than happy for the results to be published so we can appreciate what has happened.
If it was also an oversight then we appeal to the Director General of Ghana Education Service and the Minister of Education to intervene and ensure that we are all treated equally.
We have noticed that over 90 percent of those posted to the three northern regions to teach various subjects are from the southern part of the country at the expense of us those who live here and are willing to serve our people. Meanwhile no body from the Tamale Centre was posted southwards. Please note that we arenot trying to be tribal bias or discriminatory here, just that we believe in equal opportunity for all considering the fact that we are all Ghanaians.
The final batch of qualified applicants which was scheduled to be released on Friday August 5th 2016 as communicated earlier on ended up being brought on Sunday the 7th of August 2016. But just like the first and second batches, the final batch was no different. We still could not trace more than five index numbers from the Tamale Centre out of the lot that were yet to be posted. One strange thing we also noticed from the final release was that, a lot of those posted to the three northern regions were without index numbers nor contact numbers, unlike previous batches where every name came with an index number as well as a contact number. Our simple question is why don’t they have index numbers or is it the case that they didn’t take part in the exams? An applicant from the Northern Region had an index number starting with 08 example 0820160001 that of the Upper East had 09 example 0920160001 and Upper West 10 example 1020160001
One obvious observation also made was that, almost all our colleagues we have contacted who took the exam in other centers were successfully posted. Our simple question again is why was it so? Are they telling us that about the 96.9 percent of all applicants who wrote the exam at the Tamale Centre did not pass or is it the case that all our exam sheets did not get to the head office from the Tamale WAEC Centre for assessment? We want answers.
We will like to conclude by making a passionate appeal to the Education Minister, the Director General of GES and the President of the Republic,to critically examine our concerns and possibly take a second look at the procedure or criteria used in the final selection so that we can all be fairly treated and given equal opportunityof being selected devoid of our geographical location as enshrined in the 1992 constitution. We thank you very much for your attention.
Robert AdabogoApam Denis
(Spokesperson)
Akweongo Luke
(Organizer)
By: Ngamegbulamchidozie Stephen | A1RADIOONLINE.com | GHANA
