GNACOPS trains 643 teachers on new educational reforms

To ensure that private school teachers are not left out of the ongoing nationwide new educational reforms geared towards teacher professionalism, the Ghana National Council of Private Schools (GNACOPS) have trained 643 private school teachers on the new curriculum.

The exercise was a preparatory grounds for teacher professionalism and also to develop capacity for private school teachers on the Standard Base Curriculum for Primary Schools from Basic 7 to 10.

In all, GNACOPS has provided training to 4, 663 private school teachers in 22 centres with a national projection of training at least 25,000 teachers in 5,000 private schools nationwide.

The 643 private school teachers trained at Kwabenya Senior High School over the weekend were drawn from 106 schools from the Ga East and West and those from the Adantan Municipality.

Speaking to the media after the exercise, the Executive Director of GNACOPS, Mr Enoch Kwasi Gyetuah said the programme was in line with the ongoing government of Ghana and the Ministry of Education's reforms on the curriculum development aimed at departing from the mere pen and paper base test to behavioural enhancement.

Mr Gyetuah said because private schools contribute about 49% of educational delivery in the country, the council applied to the government through the ministry to be allowed to train their teachers.

"So the ongoing training for private school teachers are mandatory for every teacher who wants to remain in the classroom to be part of the exercise or risk their jobs," he stated.

The Executive Director said all teachers who participated in the training were awarded a participatory certificate which is duly recognised by the National Teaching Council (NTC) where data of teachers are collected and base on that, the NTC would be updated on private school teachers who wants to seek the professional license.

"The training can also be considered as a preparatory grounds for private school teachers to be drafted into the mainstream of teacher professionalism."

Mr Gyetuah hinted that base on the new reforms, the government of Ghana is distributing laptops to private school teachers nationwide at half price to complement their effort of delivering quality education to the Ghana children.

He revealed that the council currently is working with HP Ghana and other partners to deploy the first batch of 5,000 laptops for private school teachers who have gone through the new curriculum reforms.

He added that some proprietors have agreed to support the cost of the machines while other teachers are giving the leverage to pay on an instalments basis.

At the end of the exercise, participants expressed their happiness toward the exercise and how the training has changed their views on teaching and learning in the classroom.