Chairman of Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) in the Komenda Edina Eguafo Abrem (KEEA) Municipality, Ebenezer Darko Ansah, has expressed disquiet about how teachers in the country are ill-treated.
He intimated that teachers over the years have been poorly remunerated by successive governments in terms of their salaries and delays in their allowances which include medicals, rent, travel among others.
What he could not comprehend was the deliberate delay of the Capitation Grant which is supposed to cushion school authorities to perform as required of them.
He made these remarks on Ghana, Great and Strong, a non-partisan programme, broadcast every Saturday from 7:00 P.M.,-8:00 P.M., on Ghana’s premier internet-based radio station, www.hedjorleonlineradio.com.
He decried how little recognition was given to teachers as if they did not matter in the running of the economy.
He insisted that teachers are the hub of the economy and key to the country’s education.
The KEEA GNAT chairman indicated that for the Free Compulsory, Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) to become feasible, the central government must reconsider the welfare of teachers.
“At the moment, government is not doing much as far as the Capitation Grant is concerned. Many schools across the country do not have common basic learning materials like chalk to teach,” he lamented.
This situation, Mr. Ansah said, sometimes compels teachers to levy parents to provide such learning materials which in actual fact should not be so.
He went on to state that the full implementation of the FCUBE policy, especially the compulsory aspect, needed government’s commitment.
And though he admitted the FCUBE on paper was supposed to be working in Ghana, in practical terms he said there was nothing like FCUBE.
“What is happening in the various schools in the country is not free education, rather it is education for the rich since students have to buy everything,” he averred.
Contributing on the programme, the Ghana Education Circuit Supervisor in Cape Coast, Daniel Amanor Afari, underscored the importance of the FCUBE policy, saying “it is a good idea if the government can ensure that the compulsory aspect is effectively enforced.”
He explained that the “free” in the policy means somebody (government) must ensure that it was free for people to enjoy without paying for anything.
And for the compulsory aspect, he said, pupils should be compelled against their wish to go to school.
Buttressing his stance, he quoted Article 778, section 2 (2), (4) which spells out what should be done to those who may refuse to go to school.
Nevertheless, the education supervisor was of the view that quality education should not be overlooked.
“We cannot only talk about free and compulsory education without paying attention to quality,” he stated.
Whilst Mr. Amanor Afari was in full support of the implementation of the FCUBE, he registered his concern on the kind of difficulties teachers go through.
And along this line he called on the need for teachers conditions of service to be improved.
He bemoaned the situation where some teachers particularly those in second-cycle institutions were considered more important than those at the Junior High Schools (JHSs).
The head teacher of St. Joseph Catholic Primary School in Cape Coast, Madam Agnes Yorke who was on the programme, could not have agreed more with her co-panelists on the lack of incentives and motivation for teachers.
While admitting that the FCUBE policy was not new to teachers, she complained about inadequate resources for effective teaching and learning in schools.
“In fact, we struggle sometimes when there is a delay in the Capitation Grant to take care of the pupils,” she said.
She recounted how sometimes she had to beg parents at Parent Teachers’ Association (PTA) meeting to help in taking care of the children.
She, however, advised her colleague teachers not to give up in the face of the numerous challenges facing them.
For his part, host of the programme, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, reiterated the PPP’s commitment to ensure that the FCUBE policy, especially the “compulsory” part, was enforced.
He stated that the PPP was championing the implementation of the FCUBE in the supreme interest of the nation and not along a parochial line.
According to him, it was not just by mistake that the framers of the 1992 Constitution stated that the FCUBE policy must be adhered to and complied with its full implementation.
Though he said its implementation was long overdue, he stressed that government must be compelled to abide by the tenets of the constitution.
“Governments swear to uphold, defend and protect the constitution and for that matter no government has a choice but to fulfill that constitutional mandate,” Dr. Nduom asserted.
The 1992 Constitution, he indicated, was not like Makola or Kaneshie Market where one could go there and make a choice.
“Matters of constitution are compulsory and they are not about choices,” he stressed.
He noted with great concern the significant role teachers had played in the country’s socio-economic development, and called on the government to pay attention to teachers.
He also re-echoed the PPP’s desire not only to build school compounds but also to provide housing for teachers.
The celebrated entrepreneur wondered why apart from PPP, the other political parties were silent on the compulsory aspect of the FCUBE policy, and therefore called on every Ghanaian to join the PPP for the policy to become a reality.
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