GNAT Dep Gen SEC Warns Policy Makers Over Inappropriate Education

By Alberto Mario Noretti

Hohoe — THE Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has warned policy makers of an emerging re-colonisation through inappropriate education with dire consequences for the country.

"We are teaching the students subjects which cannot help them to find jobs, and so they move abroad after graduation to look for jobs as toilet cleaners," said Madam Gifty Apanbil, Deputy General Secretary of GNAT in-charge of Professional Development.

She said that although the Technical Education and Vocational Training (TVET) as well as agriculture had long been identified as the key to national development, policy makers had committed little resources, funds, and zeal towards supporting the effective teaching of those subjects in schools.

Madam Apanbil was speaking at the opening of the 57th GNAT/Canadian Teachers Federation Professional Workshop for 330 heads of institutions, school administrators and circuit supervisors in the Volta and Oti regions, in Hohoe on Monday.

The four-day programme is to strengthen the professional competence of the participants to enable them to handle difficult topics in the core subjects, and enhance administration in the public schools.

The workshop topics include Basic School Administration, Primary Mathematics and Science, Numeracy and Literacy, Mathematic for JHS and Science for JHS.

They also consist of English for JHS, Integrated Science for JHS, French for JHS, Social Studies and Gender Equity issues among others.

Madam Apanbil said that the lack of support for the personal development goals of the teachers by the Ghana Education Service was inimical to the delivery of quality teaching in schools.

"Some teachers are posted to the remote areas and forgotten, and also with no salary increment for five or more years," she added.

Meanwhile, the GNAT Deputy General Secretary revealed that 7, 000 teachers, on the average, left the field annually and that posed a bleak future for the country.

Worse still, she said the teachers were not recruited every year to fill those gaps because "we need clearance before recruiting them".

There are now 320,000 professional teachers in the country.

Madam Apanbil touched on the need for decent teaching tools and sought to know how an obsolete, non-functioning tractor, for instance, left on a school compound to rust be of use in an agricultural science practical lesson.

Earlier, Mr Ayuba M. Aguda, Volta/Oti Vice Chairman of GNAT, said that the association would always support teachers to deliver quality education for all children in Ghana, regardless of where they were located.

The Volta Regional Director of Education, Madam Enyonam Afi Amafuga, who opened the workshop commended GNAT for its sustained efforts to keep teachers abreast with the needed skills and knowledge to deliver on the job.

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