Teachers need to go beyond salary negotiation-Prof Obeng

Agona Swedru (C/R), Dec 16, GNA- The Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Reverend Professor Emmanuel Addo Obeng has said that if teacher commitment can be enhanced for an accelerated implementation of quality education, teachers' unions need to move beyond the confines of salary negotiations and adopt strategies for promoting commitment among teachers.

"It is unfortunate that teacher association in Ghana largely tend to limit their activities to salary negotiations," Professor Addo Obeng said.

He said, in promoting teacher commitment to the quality education process, teachers' unions such as Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and Ghana National Association of Graduate Teachers have a role to play.

He said this at the 2006 Agona District Best Teacher Award celebration at Agona Swedru, where 13 teachers were honoured for their hard work and dedicated service. According to him, these teachers' associations were only heard when "there is a congress, death of a member or more pronouncedly, salary negotiation".

He said ten years, after introducing the "Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education" (FCUBE) programme, the issue of attaining quality education still remains a major concern on the government agenda. The Vice Chancellor stressed that the country is still faced with the spectre of a large number of late teen-age school leavers, the majority of whom are deficient in basic numeric and literacy skills as well as technical skills.

The Vice Chancellor noted that since 1966 to 2002, four education committees had been formed by the past and present governments aimed at improving quality education, saying the missing ingredient is commitment of the relevant stakeholders.

The committees were the "Kwapong review Committee in 1966, Dzobo Committee 1974, Educational Reform Programme (ERP) 1987 and Anamuah Mensah Committee 2002, which reviewed the ERP 1987. He said the government on its part was committed to improve education and has been introducing more interventions including the capitation grant, school feeding programme, investment in teacher development and expansion of visible structures in educational institutions.

Prof Addo Obeng pointed out that unless policy makers and implementers internalize the philosophy of genuine commitment implementation process, the quest for achieving quality education would continue to elude the nation.

Mr. Chris Duowuna Hammond, Agona District Director of Education said in 2006, a total of 1,623 students from Junior secondary schools in the district (JSS) qualified to enter secondary schools as against 1,533 in 2005.

He said the number of JSS which scored zero percent, had reduced from seven to five schools in 2005 and 2006 academic year. Mr Ben Mensah, District Chief Executive for Agona said, the Assembly spent 40 percent of its annual budget on education to ensure quality education.

He said the District Assembly released 25 million cedis to support the best teacher award to motivate teachers to do their best. Nana Odiako Bonsu, Tufuhene of Nyakrom Traditional Area urged teachers to work harder by training the nation's future manpower needs for development.

Madam Ophelia Maria Tampuri, the national second best teacher, 2006 won the Agona district best teacher award and took home a deep freezer, whiles Madam Vida K. Saaja, and Mr Kingsley Amoah Sarbah, from Nsaba Secondary School, placed second and third respectively. They took home a double decker fridge and a mini deep freezer, while ten teachers also received various awards.