‘Teachers need retraining to promote quality education’

The government has been called upon to target in-service training needs of teachers to ensure the country achieves the desired quality education. 

The Senior Housemaster of the Akuse Senior High Technical School (AMEST), Mr Stephen Selorm Droefenu, made the call when he addressed the Ghana National Association of Teachers’ (GNAT) Biennial Local Delegates Conference at Akuse last Tuesday.

The conference was on the theme: “Transforming societies through quality education, the agenda 2030 - The role of labour unions and government”.

He said education was key to transforming the society positively, adding that quality education was necessary to drive home the Agenda 2030, the blueprint for eliminating extreme poverty, reducing inequality and protecting the planet.

Basic facilities

The guest speaker noted that although the concept of quality education was broad, what was necessary was to ensure that some basic frameworks or facilities were put in place to improve teaching and learning outcomes in schools.

 “Regular retraining of teachers is crucial to achieving quality education. Teaching is not as simple as people perceive it.

 It is a complex activity that requires vigorous training and re-training,’’ Mr Droefenu emphasised.

He said the concept of self-sponsored workshops and seminars, among others, should be a thing of the past, saying “the teacher who is at the centre of quality education should be well equipped and well motivated by stakeholders for him or her to perform’’.

Mr Droefenu said Ghana was part of the countries that adopted and budgeted for the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adding that such budgets should be used in line with the sustainable goals in support of promoting quality education in the country.

Fight for teachers

The senior housemaster urged GNAT to continue to fight for its members for study leave, affordable housing and better remuneration, as well as other conditions of service which were not readily accessible for all teachers.

The Eastern Regional GNAT Chairman, Mr John Selby, noted that the unions in the country, including GNAT, were of the view that instead of privatising education in the country, the government should rather channel such resources to the districts to strengthen supervision at basic schools, especially for quality and effective education delivery.

“We the unions are calling for teachers to be well resourced, because if the public schools are well resourced, they can match up with the so-called endowed schools,’’ Mr Selby added.

The Akuse Local GNAT Chairman, Mr Erynfred Sulley, praised GNAT for championing major issues about teachers such as teacher retention premium, which was the effort of the leading union of teachers.

He thanked the local union for their support and urged the incoming executives to continue from where the old executives left off and address the pressing needs and issues of the members to enable them to deliver qualitatively.   

The Manya Krobo GNAT Chairman, Mr Evans Tetteh Tamatey, assured the members in the Manya Krobo GNAT district that he would ensure that the union organised termly workshops and in-service training for its members to equip them to deliver well in the classrooms.