The old adage that the reward of a teacher is in Heaven has been rubbishes by practitioners of the profession, claiming that their reward should rather be reviewed here on Earth whiles they are alive, but not after they are dead and gone.
This declaration was made by members of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) in the Agona Municipality during its 6th Quadrennial and 53rd Delegates Conference on the theme: “GNAT @ 90- Equipping the Teacher with Contemporary Teaching Methods for Quality Education Delivery in Agona” which also coincided with the 90th Anniversary celebration of the Association.
Addressing the Conference, the Central Regional Chairman of GNAT, Rev. Dr. Isaac Owusu said teachers have been discriminated against for far too long, and it is now time for them to be seen as key players the delivery of quality education, and therefore need to be treated fairly as their counterparts in other sectors.
He mentioned among others, a situation where are teacher who worked for twenty four years even before the enactment of the new Pension Act, Act 766 was given only GH 5,000.00 Cedis by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SNIT) whiles their other counterparts like Members of Parliament and even Deputy Ministers and Chief Executive Officers of state institutions take over ten times that amount as gratuity and end of service benefits.
This, he described as high level of injustice meted out to teachers. “Are we the cause of the economic woes of this country that we must be made to suffer for it”, he questioned. “We are sick and tired of this injustice meted out to us and we will always continue to stand and fight for what is due us”, he assured.
He pointed out that teaching is the only profession that one can not use robot to execute, as it involves the impartation of knowledge and therefore government should consider the plight of teachers as a priority.
He further expressed dismay as to why teachers in the Central Region, after using their own meagre resource to pursue the Ghana Education Service’s (GES) approved Upgrading program at the University of Cape Coast have been denied Upgrading by the same GES after completing since 2014. Also, the Agona Municipal Secretary of GNAT, Mr. Louise Mensah lamented over lack of infrastructure such as teachers bungalows, text books and poor school buildings in the Municipality.
He noted that though the problem has been brought to the attention of the Municipal Director of Education, yet nothing has been done about it.
This development, he stressed, affects effective teaching and learning. In another development, an educationist and theologian, Nana Kofi Otoo has proposed scraping of the Free Senior High School policy, and re-introduce Scholarship Scheme. According to him, students who obtain aggregates 6-24 should be made to benefit under full Scholarship whiles those who obtain aggregates 25-30 under half Scholarship and the rest made to reseat.
He hinted that until this is done, the country will continue to produce unrefined graduates who will add up to the already existing graduate unemployment which is bedeviling the country. He stated that apart from making students serious, it will also ease the government from the problem of spending huge amount of money on education to the neglect of other important sectors.
However, the Proprietor of Kidshine Montessori at Gomoa Akropong in the Gomoa West District in the Central Region, Pastor Henry Palm has noted that scaping the Free SHS policy completely will amounts to denying most students, especially those from deprived homes and rural areas access to Secondary education.
According to him, rather aspects of the policy could be looked at and where people who have the financial resource to cater for the education of their children made to pay.
By: Robert Ayanful