Teachers “weakest” link in Ghana's edu system – GES boss

The Teacher is the weakest link in the improvement of Ghana’s education system, acting Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, Charles Aheto-Tsegah has told Morning Starr Host Kafui Dey.

“I’ve always accepted that the weakest link in our chain for development of education, actually, is the Teacher, and that really creates a bit of a concern for us," Aheto-Tsegah said Monday on the maiden edition of Starr FM’s morning show.

“For us in the Ghana Education Service (GES), our challenge has, recently, been in the area of not having real direct access in terms of the Teacher-component by way of being in control," he complained during a discussion about Ghana’s literacy rate as the world marks literacy day Monday.

He told Kafui Dey that: “We formerly used to be in control but now we are not in control, and we have a new challenge in terms of directing the type of curriculum that we want and the quality of Teachers that we want to see in our colleges of education, so that is again a bit of a challenge.”

According to the GES boss, Ghana’s literacy rate has stagnated between 55 and 65 percent for a long time. In his view, the problem largely rests with the quality of Teachers at the helm of affairs.

“…I’ll want to even put the whole issue on whether we get the motivated Teachers that we need to even go to colleges of education to undergo training," Aheto-Tsegah bemoaned.