Yilo Krobo GNAT holds delegates' conference
The Yilo Krobo branch of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has held its seventh Quadrennial 54th Municipal Delegates Conference at Somanya in the Eastern Region.
The conference called on teachers to let job satisfaction, such as conditions of service, remuneration and job structure among others, motivate them to do their work effectively.
The event, which was on the theme: “Ghana Education Service @ 50: Achievements, teacher motivation, challenges and the way forward”, was also used to elect new municipal executives to steer the affairs of the association for the next four years.
The new executives are the Chairman, Felix Kwesi Tetteh; the Vice Chairman, Believe Ama Amoah; the Treasurer, Regina Dede Djangmah; the Trustee, Kennedy Akrofi Darkeh; while the Youth Coordinator, GNAT Ladies Association Representative, Basic Schools Representative, Senior High Schools Representative and the Ghana Education Service Representative positions went to Emmanuel Toger, Helina Affreah, Ransford Tetteh, Lenin Fumador and Hayford Attikpo respectively.
Motivation
In his keynote address, the Guest Speaker and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Environment and Sustainable Development (UESD) at Somanya, Prof. Eric Nyarko-Sampson, said: “I want my colleague teachers not to single out teacher motivation in monetary terms only, but look at it entirely from all angles of our teaching career, including what we can do as teachers to bring about effective teaching and learning to the learners we have in our classrooms.”
Prof. Nyarko-Sampson noted with concern that a recent study carried out on teacher motivation and retention in Ghana revealed among other things that major contributors to teachers’ demotivation in their work included inadequate salaries, insufficient resources, poor working conditions and students’/pupils’ lack of seriousness and indiscipline.
“Poor infrastructure and resources significantly impact teacher motivation and performance, especially in lower category schools,” he added.
Intrinsic
He said even though the attention on teacher motivation had always dwelt on remunerations and conditions of service, among others, he believed that intrinsic motivation of the teacher should be the way it should go, stressing: “Higher teacher motivation has to be strongly linked to improved student/pupil learning outcomes.”
The guest speaker noted that there was a high percentage of teachers who were not performing to the expectation of their employer, the GES, as they were using teaching as a stepping stone and were, therefore, not committed to the teaching job.
He, however, said there were a few teachers who decided to go into the teaching profession and they were doing well, adding: “Those are the intrinsic teachers who have passion for the job.”
Prof. Nyarko-Sampson advised the teachers to go on to acquire new knowledge and new skills because the world is changing in other areas, including Artificial Intelligence, which the students/pupils might know more about than the teachers if they did not update themselves.
Teachers’ challenges
The Eastern Regional Minister, Rita Akosua Adjei Awatey, who was represented by the Yilo Krobo Municipal Chief Executive, Francis Addo Akumatey, said as a professional teacher herself, the challenges facing the teaching profession were not new to her and assured that the current government was committed to ensuring that all such challenges were addressed for effective teaching and learning throughout the Yilo Krobo Municipality and the country at large.
The Head of Compensations and Salaries at the GNAT Headquarters, Isaac Baah, who took the delegates through issues affecting the teachers as GES employees, entreated them to be consistent with their records, especially their dates of birth, attach importance to their retirement and above all be sincere in the earning of salaries and allowances due them.
The Yilo Krobo Municipal GNAT Secretary, Lydia Afua Buah, said teachers are the foundation and pillar of society, who develop the human resources for the country, and the government must, therefore, ensure that all the necessary allowances due them were paid, as such issues demotivated the teachers in the classrooms.
The outgoing executives, led by the Chairman, Emmanuel Tetteh Akuteye, were given citations for their dedicated services to the association in the municipality.
