GNAT, Canadian Teachers' Federation Collaboration Commended

By Peter Gbambila

Sekondi — The Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Director of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Rev. Mrs Elizabeth Akuako, has commended the Canadian Teachers' Federation (CTF) for 57 years of collaboration with the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) in the field of education.

She said the CTF had championed many training workshops with GNAT in Ghana to bring the needed change and quality education in the Ghanaian educational sector.

Rev. Mrs Akuako was delivering the keynote address on Monday at the closing ceremony for teachers who had undergone a week's training on how to handle the new curriculum to be introduced in schools next academic year which begins in September.

She appealed to the teachers to adapt to the new system which would be rolled out next academic year because change was very difficult and needed dedicated people to allow such changes to succeed.

Rev. Mrs Akuako indicated that the gesture of the Canadian Teachers' Federation showed that the education of the country was very important to them and their contributions towards the new system to succeed was very necessary.

She asked teachers to think of the greatest challenges confronting society and adjust themselves to the success of the new curriculum adding "teach the children to be creative and not to learn only what is taught in the classroom".

The Labour Relations and Condition of Service officer at GNAT Headquarters, Mr Ahenakwa-Quarshie, told the teachers that the new curriculum was a new form from the objective-based to activity-based curriculum.

He said it was time to shift the structure and content of education from merely passing examinations to building character, nurturing values, raising literates' confidence and engaging citizens who could think critically.

Mr Ahenakwa-Quarshie tasked the Ghana Education Service to train and retrain teachers to handle the task ahead of them, adding that GES must provide appropriate teaching and learning materials, equipment and tools to ensure effective teaching and learning and to provide effective supervision to make quality education delivery a reality.

The Western Regional Chairman of GNAT, Apostle Charles Kaku, who chaired the function, observed that the fact that the teachers left their families and comfort zones showed that the workshop was very important to them.

He said the employer should not always wait for the employee to 'bite' before thinking of the wellbeing of the employee; since the employee's services were very important to the growth of the business, a cordial relationship was necessary.

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