Government should get out of teacher education

Ghana needs professionally trained

teachers who have gone through programs recognized for their unique features,

including their structure, partnerships, and curricular emphases – programs

with significant contributions to the theory and practice of teacher education

which are enhanced by a strong emphasis on pre-professional field experiences.

The new Ghanaian teacher needs both academic and professional preparation that

combines rigorous general education, subject matter specialization facets and

professional training.

To

achieve these there is

the need to review the caliber of personnel who are accepted for training and

preparation into the profession. The existing structure appears to be weak in

terms of selection of students for training into the profession. The

requirements for admission into a college of education is almost the same as

those for a university – a significant pass at the West African Secondary

School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). Those accepted into colleges of

education are given diplomas at the of their course work while those who attended

universities graduate with degrees. Why should students with the same

qualifications be made to pursue courses with different emphasis?

Consequently, after

a three-year stay in a

college of education, the teachers go ahead to be re-admitted into

degree-awarding institutions to eventually become degree holders. This explains

why Ghana Education Service (GES) is the only institution in the country that

gives study leave to a large number of its personnel every year. Available data

indicates that teachers on study leave peaked at 9,814 in 2000 and since then

averaged around 6,000. The situation has become so disturbing that GES has now

resorted to issuing quota for the number of teachers approved to proceed on

study leave every year nationwide. In 2006/07 the quota was 3,000. These

figures indicate a system that is sick and needs to be treated. Almost all

those granted study leave pursued various courses leading to a degree. If the

Cert A or diploma holding teacher was satisfied, would he go to a university

for a degree?

 It has been the intention of

almost every Ghanaian teacher to possess a first degree. If this is the

ultimate why then would government continue to spend resources on their

training when there are countless of graduates who wish to be teachers but for

whatever be the reason are denied the opportunity. Government should go for

graduates and spend less resources to train them to become teachers. By

bringing them in as college graduates government would not be burdened with the

constant demand for study leave with pay. It would also bring stability into

the system since almost none would be looking forward to upgrade himself/herself

as it exists now. Those who would go for advanced degrees would do so at their

own time and financial expense

The graduates already have

the required academic qualification to be teachers. All they needed would

possibly be a one year professional training to become accredited as teachers.

This one year training could be done through sandwich classes during the school

break periods at their own time and cost - that is for those who want to be

considered as professionals and qualify for positions and promotions. On the

other hand there could be a three-month intensive classroom academic work for

all the jargons needed to be a professional teacher to be followed by three

months of teaching practice.Â

Accepting only graduates

into the profession would make it easy to diversify the personnel into the

various aspects of the profession. The existing method of training adopts the

one size fits all approach for all teachers at the expense of the various

specializations “ Guidance and Counselling, Special Education, Early Childhood

Education;

Educational Psychologists, Administrators, Curriculum developing; subject

specialization and others more.

When government gets out of the training of

teachers, there would be enough funding available to give reasonable pay to

teachers or

competitive remuneration package for the profession. This would make teaching

attractive to those with

passion for the profession who had shun the initial call into the diploma awarding

institutions to become teachers. It would

also bring out the best in teachers by the exhibition of love and compassion

for the profession. Ghanaian students would

be the eventual winners since standards would

be raised in the long run.

Among other things, one of

the major requirements for the success of fee free senior high school (SHS)

education

in Ghana is the availability of professionally trained teachers. Available data

indicates that the Ghana Education Service (GES) has a teacher-deficit of about

60,000 throughout the country. The GES is unable to fill these vacancies

because of the low number of teachers that come out of the 38 colleges of

education every year. How then would the GES respond to the pressure that would

be exerted on the system by the fee free SHS so far as teachers are concerned? Â Â Â

On the other hand Ghana has

12 Public Universities, 64 Private Universities and 10 Polytechnic (Now

Technical Universities). These sum up to 86 Universities and each is producing

graduates every year. Combined these institutions send out about 65-70,000

graduates for the National Service Scheme (NSS). (Each graduate is required by

law to serve one year under the NSS). Since both the public and private sectors

are unable to absorb all of them after their NSS duties, they have become a

public burden. One area in the system that can absorb them in their numbers is

the teaching field.

The system has already overproduced graduates

and is unable to absorb them. Why would

the government spend resources to train someone for a diploma while somebody

had already been educated by a university for a degree at a relatively no cost

for the same teaching position? As part of its

commitment to employ the multitudes of unemployed university graduates in the

country, it would be prudent for the government to cease from the training of

teachers in its present form and depended on the universities for their

graduates.

For a while the payment of stipends (alawa)

for teacher-trainees has become a problem for the government. President Nkrumah

introduced it to woo people into the teaching profession. General Afrifa’s

National Liberation Council (NLC) cancelled it. The Rawlings’ administration

restored it and was maintained by Kuffour’s government only to be cancelled

again by the Prof. Mills regime. It became a campaign issue for both the 2012

and 2016 presidential elections. The On/Off again payment of alawa to the

students is a problem that needs to be tackled once and for all instead of the

ad hoc solutions proffered to it. A permanent solution would be the employment

of degree holders into the profession and the cessation of training of teachers

by the government. If you do not train them, you do not pay them alawa

Is the

government not discriminating against

teachers in terms of conversion of all tertiary institutions into degree

awarding ones? A case in point are the polytechnics. If anything at all the

polytechnics’ Higher National Diploma (HND) was almost the same as the diplomas

given to teachers. Effectively almost all the polytechnics are now awarding

degrees to their products. Why cannot the same be said about colleges of

education? Discrimination in any shape or form is disrespectful and dangerous.

The Government of Ghana should at least stop this type of discrimination, show

some respect to teachers by upgrading their minimum qualification to a degree

and their institutions to be at par with all tertiary institutions in the

country.

It is high time government paid attention to

the employment of college graduates to make university education more

meaningful and rewarding to those concerned. What is the purpose of encouraging

students to pursue higher education only to end up roaming in the streets

begging for peanuts or settling for crumbs? My argument is that government should

go for

university graduates as teachers and spend little or no resources to train them

as teachers and stop the “financial loss to the state.”

 Ghana Government should

get out of teacher

education!

OPANIN KWABENA MENSAH

NB: The same argument is

being made for the government to get out of the training of Nurses  Â