Teachers urged to be patient with pupils

Teachers have been urged to be tactful and patient with their pupils, and to always work to meet approved standards.

Speaking at a seminar for basic school teachers in Accra on the theme: "Teacher: The Key To Good Quality Education," Mr. Anthony Kwaku Amoah, Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Ghana Schools Project, a non-governmental organization, urged teachers to see themselves as coaches, facilitators and counselors of the children they teach.

He reminded teachers that parents, chiefs, community elders and everybody accorded them the honour and respect they deserved as moulders of pupils' lives, and therefore stressed the need for them to justify themselves as such by doing what was right.

Mr. Amoah, who is also a teacher and counselor, urged the participants of the need for proper research and preparation into whatever they taught, and adopted professionally, friendly methodology to enable them meet their stated instructional objectives at all times.

"We must always respect the rights of all pupils in our classrooms, including the so-called weakest pupils, and develop strategies that can satisfy their demands and aspirations within the teaching and learning occasion. We must always strive to tackle poor performance among the pupils we teach for community to continue to have that confidence as character moulders in us," he said.

Mr. Paa Alidu Sulley, an educationist and chairman for the occasion, advised teachers to be hardworking, and eschew acts of immorality and negligence that had the propensity to dent their image as dispensers of knowledge and good values.

"It would be sad and inappropriate for the teacher to be tagged as a rapist, drunkard and smoker. We must lead lives worthy of emulation by our pupils and the community in which we operate," he added.