GNAT trains teachers in gender issues
Fifteen teachers in the Upper West region have undergone training in gender issues to improve their understanding of gender-related issues that come up in school and in the society.
The Regional chapter of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) initiated the training.
The initiative, according to the Regional Secretary of GNAT, Mr Kwame Dagbondow, is to improve the teachers’ world view of gender issues in order for them to be able to better introduce such issues to the schoolchildren and the greater society.
That way, they would be able to make the schoolchildren and the society see how sensitive such issues were, he said.
He said it was also intended to bring a gender-friendly atmosphere into the classroom where society's future adults converged to learn.
GNAT organised the training workshop in collaboration with the Canadian Teachers Federation (CTF), which provided the two main resource persons from Canada.
Gender concepts
The two-day training covered gender concepts, Ghana's social perceptions of men and women, division of labour in the Ghanaian society, practical and strategic gender needs, and gender-equitable teaching strategies, among others.
Participating teachers were selected from Wa West District (13) and Wa Municipality (two). Their roles include a trainer-of-trainers programme, which will involve organising local trainings for fellow teachers and community leaders.
At the end of the training, participants drew individual action plans which will guide their implementation activities back at their duty posts. The GNAT regional secretary said his outfit would ensure that the trainees were provided with the opportunity to execute their plans.
Values on gender roles
Mr Dagbondow explained that the initiative was inspired by the reality that men's roles in society largely came with economic values, whereas women's roles hardly came with any value.
For instance, he mentioned that men were handed chairman positions on community development associations which come with privileges and other benefits, while women were consigned to the duty of baby care, for which they were not paid.
"We will make sure that participants are empowered at the local level to actualise their plans at their various stations," he said.
Changing perceptions
A Deputy General Secretary of GNAT, Madam Gifty Apanbil, said the three regions in the north needed such programmes to change perceptions on gender matters within the area.
"We need such programmes here to change attitudes towards elopement, to change attitudes towards marrying off daughters before they mature, to change attitudes towards education of the girl child, to change attitudes towards girls' migration to the south to become head porters," she said.
She expressed the hope that the training would mark "the beginning of a big shift in society's attitude towards girls and women" to enable them to contribute even more positively to the development of society.
Coordinator, Madam Helena Awurusa, encouraged the participants to make meaning of their training by implementing the strategies developed to bring the desired change in society.
