Kwaebibirem District Assembly offers scholarships to 260 Teachers

Asuom(E/R), Oct. GNA - The Kwaebibirem District Assembly has sponsored 260 Teachers in Training Colleges to ensure enough trained teachers fill vacancies in schools in the District. The trainees have entered into an agreement with the Assembly to teach in the district for at least three years, before seeking transfer to elsewhere.

One hundred and ninety-one of the 260 have completed their training and posted to some schools in the district.

Mr Yaw Yiadom-Boakye, District Chief Executive, in an address read on his behalf at the International Teachers Day celebration at Asuom, said the Assembly had in addition, begun assisting brilliant but needy tertiary students who had applied for financial assistance to enable them pursue their careers.

Mr Yiadom-Boakye said to create a congenial atmosphere for quality teaching and learning; the assembly was judiciously using grants received from the Government to provide the required infrastructure and furniture for schools.

On the Capitation Grant for the implementation of the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) policy, he asked teachers to co-operate with their headteachers and the District Directorate of Education to ensure that a credible register of pupils were collated and submitted to the appropriate quarters for the necessary action. The District Chairman of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Mr M. P. Nimako, called on the leadership of GNAT to forge greater co-operation with the District Assemblies and District Education Office to raise the standard of education.

He said job satisfaction and teacher commitment were two very important factors for effective performance of teachers. Mr Nimako said the association would continue to ensure that the necessary conditions prevailed in the Ghana Education Service to make teachers have job satisfaction and become committed to their work. Mr Sampson Afrifa, Headmaster of the Salvation Army Secondary School, Akyem Wenchi, in a keynote address said teacher education should not end with obtaining a diploma or degree but rather, teachers should be encouraged to show interest in attending in-service training programmes organized by the directorate to enhance professional development.

He advised the teachers to engage in self-study activities related to their various professional needs, interest, responsibilities and be voracious readers for knowledge and skills to be more functional. Mr George Aboagye, District GNAT Secretary, asked teachers to remain united and support the leadership to fight for better conditions of service. He asked them to eschew apathy, mistrust and absence at meetings, which were some of the challenges facing the association.