Low wages, poor conditions cause teacher attrition - Report

Accra, Feb. 11, GNA - Low salaries and poor working conditions have been identified as the major reasons why teachers leave for "greener pastures" in other fields, a nationwide draft research survey conducted i= n public schools in Ghana has found.

The research study dubbed: "Teacher Attrition in Ghana", which was conducted in pre-tertiary schools, sought to identify why teachers in the=

classroom leave and also explore effective measures of retaining them. The study was jointly facilitated and developed by Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), and the Teachers and Educational Workers Union of Trade Union Congress (TEW of TUC).

Mr Kwabena Nyarko Otoo, a research fellow at GTUC, who presented the=

draft report in Accra, said 98.2 per cent of the respondents sampled indicated their dissatisfaction with working conditions and salary whiles=

1.8 said otherwise.

He said the survey indicated that the gross monthly salaries of respondents sampled ranged between GH¢401 and GH¢500 cedis.

Mr. Otoo said: "It also came out that 23.3 per cent of the responde= nts earn between GH¢201 and GH¢300 as gross monthly salary, 18.2 per cent= earn between GH¢301 and GH¢400 while 11.7 per cent of the respondents earn=

between GH¢501 and GH¢600 cedis," he said.

He said the finding indicated that reasonable level of wages was an important instrument for motivating teachers to remain in the teaching profession.

Mr Otoo said "Teachers in Ghana earn relatively low salaries compare= d to their counterparts in other African countries and those holding comparable qualification in other sectors of the economy."

He said analysis of the study revealed that about 90 per cent of the= respondents indicated their intention to further their education in areas= including business and finance agriculture, journalism and communication,=

education, community development as well as Information Communication Technology.

Mr Otoo said it also disclosed that about 95 per cent were professionally trained of which 51 per cent had Bachelor's Degree, 21.3 h= ad Diploma in Education whiles 3 per cent had attained Master's Degree. Mrs Irene Duncan-Adanusa, General Secretary of GNAT, who chaired the=

function to deliberate on the draft research survey, said formal educatio= n was the key contributor the socio-economic development of the country. "The quality of a country's stock of human capital influences the extent to which knowledge and technology can be utilized to enhance productivity and to improve the well-being of the citizens. "Formal education is also the most effective means of skills acquisition and increase of the ability to understand, appreciate and critique new ideas hence the sector has not yet received the needed attention," Mrs Duncan-Adanusa said. She said the nation's education sector faced numerous challenges including poor and inadequate infrastructure, insufficient financing and shortage of teachers especially in the rural areas despite the interventi= ons of successive governments. Mrs Duncan-Adanusa said polices aimed at retaining teachers had partially failed due to non-involvement of stakeholders in developing suc= h polices. "The views of teachers who are at the centre of the educational syst= em are hardly taken into consideration," she said. 11 Feb. 10