'Too many teachers of convenience in the system'

Professor Jonathan Fletcher, Deputy Director of the Institute of Education of the University of Cape Coast (UCC) has observed that there are too many ‘teachers of convenience’ in the educational system.

He said this had created an irony of the older generation of less qualified teachers in the past, producing better output than that of the current generation, with supposedly higher qualifications.

Prof. Fletcher was speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on the sidelines of the 8th congregation of the Saint Francis’ College of Education held at Hohoe on Saturday.

He said there was the urgent need for the educational planners to identify, nurture, guide and motivate young students with the flair and interest in teaching into the profession, which should have a very low attrition rate.

“You go in, (teaching) for the love and interest in it, and not because you have to, because at that moment, there is no better opening,” Professor Fletcher noted.

Prof. Fletcher had also complained about fewer and fewer Ghanaians doing science in schools.

He said there must be conscious efforts by government to attract science teachers and students and that in some other countries there were school fee variations or waivers for such people.

A total of 243 students were awarded Diplomas in Basic Education, whiles one person, Fred Yao Gakpo, got first class.

Mr Dennis Moses Agbenuvor, the Principal, said the College was progressing steadily as many infrastructural works, including living quarters’ of lecturers, were completed and contracts for a fence wall and guest house, among others, awarded.

He expressed concern about the increasing encroachment on the College’s land by private developers.

Mr Agbenuvor mentioned poor drainage, access roads, use of the compound as a thoroughfare and the small dormitory space for girls, especially as some of the other pressing challenges.

The Right Rev Bishop Francis Lodonu, Bishop of the Ho Diocese of the Catholic Church who is Council Chairman of the College, wondered why the councils of education colleges in the Volta Region remained interim ones, while those in other regions had been confirmed.

Bishop Lodonu appealed to the Ghana Education Service (GES) to quicken the placement of newly posted teachers on the pay roll.

He said there should be no further delay in concluding the processes to accord the colleges of education tertiary status.