Right To Play warns teacher shortages hinder fight against child labour

Right To Play Ghana has raised an alarm over severe teacher shortages in remote communities, warning that the lack of educators is undermining efforts to combat child labour and trafficking. During a stakeholder engagement for the ‘My Life, My Rights’ and ‘My Life, My Future’ projects, the organization revealed that some basic schools in rural areas are operating with as few as two or three teachers, despite requiring a full staff of nine. This deficit is forcing schools to combine classes under multigrade arrangements, which significantly diminishes the quality of education available to vulnerable children.

Harrison Akubor, Head of Office for Right To Play Ghana, explained that the scarcity of teachers creates a major gap in the education system, making it difficult to keep children in the classroom once they have been rescued from labour. He noted that the challenge is compounded by geographical barriers, with some children in settler communities travelling up to seven kilometres to reach their schools. This distance negatively impacts attendance and makes the long-term reintegration of children into the formal education system nearly impossible to sustain without better local support and staffing.

In the Asunafo North municipality, the teacher deficit is estimated to be between 300 and 400. Julius Kwami Tsatsu, Project Manager for the ‘My Life, My Rights’ project, stated that such attrition levels create an ‘unfair educational environment’ for children in deprived areas. To address these vulnerabilities, the organization has established 20 Community Child Protection Committees across 50 communities. These committees have already identified 144 child protection cases, successfully resolving over 90 percent of them, while the broader projects have reached approximately 11,000 children and 3,000 youth so far.

Right To Play is currently collaborating with the Ministry of Education, the Ghana Education Service, and local government structures to find sustainable ways of deploying teachers to these remote regions. Beyond staffing, the organization highlighted that poverty remains the root cause of child labour, necessitating livelihood empowerment for parents. Additionally, Mr. Akubor called for an early resolution to the current teachers’ strike, pointing out that children in project communities are currently loitering and at increased risk of exploitation while schools remain closed.