The Wa West District of the Upper West Region is an important sending area for teacher
migrants to the Brong Ahafo Region, both in Ghana. This paper discusses the reasons for the
out-migration of teachers and the effects on the quality of basic education in the Wa West
District. The discussion focuses on the characteristics of the teacher migrants, reasons for outmigration
and the performance of sending schools as a result of the out-migration. The goal is to
expose some of the reasons that account for poor quality education in the Upper West Region
while attempting to suggest remedies to this problem. To be able to do this a survey was
conducted using questionnaire and interviews as main instruments. The survey revealed that
economic push factors such as inadequate motivation for teachers in the sending District and
the lack of alternative employment opportunities were key factors for teacher migration. The
push conditions were found to result in the poor performance of pupils at the primary and
junior secondary school levels in sending district. Consequently, it was concluded that
improvements in the socio-economic and infrastructure of the sending district, which would aid
in bridging the development gap between the two regions, would help in reducing teacher
migration and improve the quality of basic education in the Wa West District.