Don't sack non-professional teachers – 2014 Best Teacher appeals

Vice President Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur has condemned as “inexcusable”, attempts by the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) to justify why Teachers absent themselves in school.

Amissah-Arthur said at the 20th National Best Teacher Awards ceremony in the Central Regional Capital, Cape Coast that attempts by the president of GNAT, Alexander Boadi, to “excuse this inexcusable” attitude was “unacceptable”.

Boadi, who spoke at the same event, moments before the Vice President, said some difficulties and challenges made Teacher absenteeism inevitable.

The Vice President, however, retorted: “I don’t think it is excusable”.

According to him, even the reduction of teacher absenteeism from 27 percent as of 2013, to about 11 percent, currently, is not good enough.

“Even the 10 percent is way way too high," Amissah-Arthur said.

He challenged the Association of Teachers to come up with “scientific reasons”, accounting for Teacher absenteeism, so that the problem could be tackled properly.

“I don’t think the Teachers who we look up to should be encouraging this behavior."

The Ministry of Education rolled out a programme called 'operation zero tolerance for Teacher absenteeism,' towards tackling the problem.