Prioritising Education In Ghana; The Predicament Of The Teacher In Focus

We all who are able to read this article should give credit to our teachers who instructed us throughout the time of our education. The Journalist, the Engineer, the Geologist, the Manager, ...; whoever practices as a professional in any field at all is able to do so because he had a teacher who took him patiently through the course of study from his infancy, even until now. Let us all cast our minds to those of our childhood friends who had no formal education, what has become of most of them? However, I am not articulating that formal education is the only way to make it in life; nonetheless, it serves as a very important foundation abutment for the future of every individual or group. Do we all know that some respect we have been allotted is as a result of the formal education we have acquired? Hardly do we even remember our teachers who taught us to be who we are today much more to talk about buying a gift for them. It is an indisputable fact that the teacher is an indispensable tool in the life of our children and the future development of the country. Unfortunately, in Ghana the teacher has been at the receiving end of swaggering by Politicians and Policy Makers.

This attitude of our leaders has led to the cultivation of an aggrieved teaching profession. Could we observe that teachers are the people who complain most in the country? Now people use this honourable profession only as a stepping stone to finding better jobs but not as a means to sow a good seed in the life of someone. The Ghana National Association of Teacher (GNAT) in conjunction with the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) conducted a survey to determine the rate at which teachers are leaving the profession for other jobs, and the reasons which are storming them to do so. The survey showed that out of 190,000 teachers on the field, 10,000 of them leave annually. The survey further demoed that one-third of them that leave is lost to the financial institutions. A few take up study leave with pay, even if they return to teach, they are paid meagre salaries.

In an interview on Joy Fm’s morning show, on Tuesday 23rd February, Mr Kobina Nyarkoh Ottoo, head of research at TEWU enumerated a number of reasons why teachers are continually leaving the profession. He mentioned poor salary levels and little motivation. His colleague Miss Helena Ewurasah, the Gender Coordinator, GNAT added that sometimes the teachers are posted to certain environments that they find very difficult to integrate themselves. She mentioned particularly that all developments are concentrated in Accra, hence people who live in Accra when they are posted to rural communities find it difficult to live comfortably in such places without internet, electricity, portable water and basic amenities. I received a seismic disturbance when the Deputy Minister of Education, Mr J. S. Annan described the situation as unalarming. This should inform us of the attitude of our leaders to education in general and the plight of teachers specifically. No wonder the allowances of teachers have been reduced drastically. My conversation with a few teachers have revealed that they are not motivated enough to take up responsibility, considering the fact that the responsibility allowance of a Junior High School Headmaster is about GHC 1.00. The Minister further added that “...we want people who really want to teach because we have found out that people use the teaching profession as a stepping stone to get better jobs”. I want us all to ask the Minister this question; is he working for the sake of working?, if that its the case then he should forfeit his salary, his official residence, the car the ministry has given him and do away with the opulent diplomatic rights rendered to him. I am persuaded that this is an elongation of the ridicule our teachers receive in the boardrooms and at negotiation tables.

Currently, the Ghana Education Service (GES) estimates the teacher demand of the country at 270, 000. The number of teachers on the field now is 190,000, thus the country is in a deficit of 80,000. All the colleges of education in Ghana collectively graduate about 9,000 new teachers annually. When this figure is juxtaposed with the 10,000 that leave the profession annually, there is a net of 1,000 new vacancies which are created, and this figure will cumulate until an antidote is sought for and applied. This means that if the situation should continue as it is, the 190,000 on the field would be reduced to 150,000 in 50 year’s time. The vision of GES to get teachers to fill all these vacancies in the profession is only a mirage, conjuration and illusion.

These kinds of treatment teachers suffer have led to poor performance of public schools, despite the fact that all the professional teachers in the country are teaching in these schools. It is even unimportant and waste of national resources to change our educational system simultaneously with change in government. If we have the will to make our system better, there are many ways to do so; for instance motivating our teachers.

Conclusively, we should think about the future of this country and the future of the children born and unborn. We need to pay proper attention to our educational system, and more importantly the people who make up the core of the system—our teachers. I think it is time for us to rally be the teacher to debate their course, by doing this we are not only fighting for the betterment of the living condition of the teacher but we are also fighting for the future of our dear motherland. God bless the future of Ghana!

Eugene Sam-Okyere

Geological Engineering Department, KNUST, Kumasi. [Email: ugsam2000@yahoo.co.uk.]