EDUCATION, HEALTH FACILITIES LACK QUALIFIES PERSONNEL (PAGE 20, JAN 12, 2010)

Most educational and health facilities in various districts in the Western Region, especially the Aowin Suaman District, lack teachers and nurses.
Some districts are so deprived that some health and educational professionals consider posting to these communities as a punishment when they assess the comfort their colleagues enjoy elsewhere, particularly in the cities.
However, the Aowin Suaman District Chief Executive, Mr Oscar Ofori Larbi, has vowed to reverse the trend by offering opportunities to qualified citizens to be trained with sponsership from the assembly.
The DCE made this known when he toured various communities and said “students who have passed their Mathematics, General Science and English Language and were interested in those professions should not hesitate to apply for sponsorship”.
Various communities in the districts lack access roads, electricity, water, decent accommodation, transportation and other poor social infrastructure such as telephone reception.
Members of the deprived communities, especially women and children, thirst for quality education and healthcare services.
These communities produce the country’s chunk of cocoa, timber, gold, bauxite and manganese, as well as foodstuffs, to feed the well-endowed minority in the cities and towns.
Pregnant women in some of these communities die on their way to health facilities, their children have to walk miles across weak bridges and streams before getting to school.
In some of the communities, the people have to walk more than seven hours to access education and health care services.
Children in the deprived communities are used to seeing people waking up in the morning and going to farm instead of school, as it pertains in the cities.
The DCE said since it was difficult to get the professionals to work in the district, it was best for the assembly to train its own professionals.
Mr Larbi said the people from the area were the last hope of the people, and therefore, “if the assembly trains them, they are expected to come back to serve their people. The assembly will counsel the beneficiaries on the need to return to their communities to serve their people,” he said.
He said it was important to let those who would be interested in the package to know that the district would need them after their training.
The DCE said many of these young people qualified for further studies and training but due to financial constraints, they were not able to take advantage of existing opportunities for self-development.
Mr Larbi expressed the hope that chiefs, parents and other stakeholders in the district would take advantage of the offer.
When contacted, the Western Regional Director of Health Services, Dr Linda Vanotoo, acknowledged the problem and said it was the case everywhere but were doing everything possible to save the situation.