4.1 The posting form

When trainee teachers finish their 3-year training course, they are asked to select the 3 regions, in order of preference, where they would like to be posted. As has already been noted, there is a strong bias in trainees' choices to the more urban southern regions and only a few of my participants had chosen Central Region as a first choice. When trainee teachers make their selections, the most common order of preference is as follows: Greater Accra, Eastern Region and Ashante Region. These choices reflect a strong preference among trainees throughout the country for the Regions nearest the most developed cities in Ghana: Accra, Kumasi and Tema. The following quotation from a newly trained teacher is an example of one kind of behaviour that might be termed "teacher deviance". Along with newly trained teachers seeking urban posts in government schools, despite being given a rural posting, and the widely acknowledged problems in record-keeping within GES, this seems to have become increasingly common in recent years:

I had a friend who was posted to Brong Ahafo [to] a village you had to walk to the school so he said he wouldn't go so he found a private school in Tema. [Female teacher in an urban primary school]

Central Region would generally be the fifth most popular choice of region (behind Brong Ahafo, which is considered to have the best opportunities for setting up a farm). Its disadvantage is its high proportion of rural schools, but its main attraction is its southern location and relative nearness to the major cities and the two main higher education institutions for teachers: Cape Coast and Winneba universities. In fact, among all the newly qualified teachers I interviewed, further education was very high on their list of priorities, reflecting a universal desire to get qualified in order to move into higher status sectors of teaching or out of the profession altogether. The following quotation typifies this desire and, since he is nearer the universities having been transferred the previous year, he is in a position to further his studies and prepare for the university entrance exam in a way that teachers in the more isolated rural schools cannot:

When you go to school and others who were with you get a better job...so most teachers want to leave. Personally, I enjoy teaching but if I get a better job I will go. Now I am doing Art Education at Winneba to teach in Senior Secondary School [...] At school I wanted to be an artist. I had a skill and wanted to develop it. But it was unfortunate I didn't get the grades for Tech [Tertiary education]. At training college I did art and vocational skills, but I don't get a chance to do the art here so [at a JSS school] I have to force myself to teach catering. [Would you like to be a head?] Nobody likes to be that...[teacher in an urban JSS having been transferred from a rural school after one year]

On the posting form teachers can also state a preference for a certain kind of religious unit (Presbyterian, Catholic, Muslim etc.), which each run a relatively small number of state schools in each region. These units have a limited amount of autonomy and tend to be relatively overstaffed and poor communications with district offices can offer a loophole in the system, leading teachers to get early transfers from their initial posting, as the following example reveals:

[Were you happy with your posting?] Not really, you know when you go to the new station there are always problems. Initially I was sent to E. (a rural school). I didn't report because I wanted to upgrade myself. When I was released and came to this place, I thank my stars, though the transport is a problem. [How did you get a transfer?] I got a release. I decided to change from the Catholic to the AME Zion educational unit. [Was it easy or difficult?] Initially, before I came out I was looking for a good posting as I was a sportsman, I needed to be in certain areas to train pupils and officiate sports events. [I've heard people often pay bribes for early releases...] It would depend on the link...everybody would prefer the town for extra classes to upgrade yourself. A village that only gets a car once a week is very difficult. [Male teacher who didn't report and got reposted to an urban JSS]

One district director in this study noted that a Unit with two schools had allowed ten teachers to transfer in one year, without consulting or considering the likely cost and impact.

Trainees are also asked to state any health problems that might prevent them from working in a rural area, backed up by a health certificate, and many teachers see emphasising health problems as a way of transferring from difficult postings:

In fact, at first, I was posted to a village (S.) and because of my health things were not going well with me so I went to the District Office and was posted here. The village is far and vehicles are not patronising that place and I always had to walk so I was finding it very difficult. The doctor recommended I should be transferred. [Bribes?] No, I just confronted the circuit supervisor and he asked me to present medical forms and an application to the district office and she gave [the director] gave me an immediate transfer. [Female teacher transferred from a rural to an urban primary school]