Stakeholders discuss Education For All goals

The Chief Africa Regional Co-ordinator of Education International, Mrs Assibi Napoe, says sub-Saharan Africa needs 15 million teachers in one year to achieve the Education For All goals.

The Education For All goals include promoting learning and life skills for young people and adults, increasing adult literacy by 50 per cent, as well as improving the quality of education.

Aside from that, Mrs Napoe said, sub-Sahara African countries needed to review their educational curricula to suit their cultures and values, adding that the sub-Saharan region needed qualified teachers for the delivery of quality education.

“We need to review our curricula to make it appropriate for our lives,” she said in Accra on Friday at a colloquium on quality education organised by the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT).  

It was on the theme: “The Sound of Silence. The Exclusion of Quality Education in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The Education International is a global federation of teachers’ trade unions.

Unqualified teachers

Mrs Napoe said, for instance, while 70 per cent of teachers in Niger were non-qualified, only 14 per cent of teachers in Togo were qualified, adding that the sub-Saharan region needed qualified teachers for the delivery of quality education.

She said every child needed to access quality education since it was their fundamental human right, and that governments should also provide finances to guarantee free and quality education to children.

She said at least six per cent of GDP and 20 per cent of national budget should be pumped into the education sectors of countries to produce the requisite human resources for development.

Build capacity

Mrs Napoe charged teacher unions to build the capacity of their members and create a synergy with parents, students, government and civil society.

“If we do not have a synergy we cannot mobilise for quality education,” she said.

The Director of the Inspectorate Board of the Ministry of Education, Dr Augustine Tawiah, called on the government to fast track the decentralisation of the education sector for efficiency.

“We need to work on the decentralisation as quickly as possible,” he said.

The Minister of Education, Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, reminded teachers of the need to work hard to provide quality teaching.

Regular attendance

She called for the regular attendance of teachers in the classrooms and deplored absenteeism on the part of some teachers.

A columnist of the Daily Graphic, Mr Anis Haffar, deplored the emotional abuse of children, adding that such a practice negatively affected them.

He said once children were confident, there was nothing they could not do.

A former acting Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mr Michael Nsowah, underscored the need for the government to use its little resources efficiently in the provision of education facilities.

Essential elements

Welcoming the participants, the President of NAGRAT, Mr Christian Addai-Poku, said quality teachers, quality tools and quality environment were essential elements of quality education for a successful global future.

“Support for each of these pillars will help ensure that quality education remains the basis for a sustainable, peaceful and prosperous future,” he said.