GES terminates appointment of pupil teachers
The Ghana Education Service (GES) has terminated the appointment of all untrained teachers (pupil teachers) in the country.
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This was because they have failed to upgrade themselves in line with the GES guidelines that gave them up to September 1, 2014 to do so.
They are however to be replaced by professional teachers.
According to the Acting Director General of GES, Mr Charles Aheto Tsegah, the affected pupil teachers were all aware that they had up to September 1, 2014 to leave their post for professional teachers to replace them.
He said the move had nothing to do with the planned job retrenchment exercise by the government.
In 2005, the GES rolled out a four-year distance education programme known as the Untrained Teacher Training Diploma in Basic Education (UTTDBE) to train up to 25,000 teachers by 2009.
The programme among other things was aimed at helping to advance the personal and professional competence of the trainees (pupil teachers) in order to improve the quality of education at the basic school level.
The move was also to help produce teachers, who have a clear grasp of intended outcomes of their teaching activities and skills in monitoring, diagnosing and providing appropriate equal opportunities to all pupils so as to be able to reduce the percentage of the number of untrained teachers in the system.
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This was because, at the mid- point of the millennium agenda (2000-2015), 40 percent of Primary school teachers and 24 percent of Junior High School teachers remained untrained in Ghana.
Pupil teachers who enrolled on the programme and were successful were awarded with a diploma in Basic Education.
Speaking to Citi FM in Accra, the acting director of GES, Mr Tsegah said it was time for the pupil teachers to give way for professional ones.
He said they were given a defined period for which they would be engaged and that the time was up..
“They had a specific duration for which they had to work and the time was up”.
He said they cannot continue to be in the classrooms.
Writer's email: enoch.frimpong@graphic.com.gh