Graduate Teachers Told Not To Abandon Profession

Ms Christine Churcher, Minister of State for Basic, Secondary and Girl Child Education, has called on Graduate Teachers not to abandon the classroom to seek greener pasture out side the country. She said, "it is pitiful to realise that the teachers trained with tax payer's money often boycott the teaching profession and look for more lucrative jobs".

Ms Churcher was speaking at the inauguration of the Basic Education Students Association (BESA) at the University of Education Winneba on Saturday. She urged teachers to be more patriotic and said "the level of development in Ghana coupled with limited resources makes it difficult for the government to pay realistic wages, salaries and other incentive packages to workers nation-wide among, which the teacher is no exception".

Ms Churcher said, "It has been a hectic burden for government to fund basic education, which is supposed to be a foundation of development". The Minister noted with concern the lack of logistics including inadequate infrastructure, furniture, textbooks, teaching and learning materials, which were hampering the development of basic education.

Ms Churcher expressed surprise that the few that government was able to provide were not being properly taken care of and urged teachers to improvise with local teaching and learning aids. She asked Graduate Teachers to use their education to improve relation between schools and communities through structures such as Parent Teacher Associations, Unit and School Management Committees to improve enrolment.

She said Graduate Teachers should bring their knowledge to bear on the health needs of communities in areas of hygiene, sanitation, school health, girls education and the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS in collaboration with agencies and Non- Governmental organisations.