41 Per cent of primary school teachers untrained

29-04-09
Page 11

THE Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) is worried that about 41 per cent of primary school teachers of the Ghana Education Service (GES) are untrained.
According to GNAT, the level of training and expertise of educators have serious effects on the quality of education that is given to the youth and adults, and stressed the need for the government to invest in the teachers, since they drive the wheels of education.
The General Secretary of GNAT, Mrs Irene Duncan-Adanusah, expressed the worry at a one-day reading clinic organised by the association for 24 pupils from eight basic schools at Amasaman in the Ga West Municipality.
The event was organised in collaboration with the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC) and sponsored by EPP Books Limited as part of the Global Action Week celebration.
She said it was through qualified and well-motivated teachers that Ghanaian children could gain quality public education.
Mrs Duncan-Adanusah noted that the most effective way through which the youth and adults could gain the knowledge they were searching for, was through correct reading habits.
She observed that while there were millions of people across the world who could not read, there were 75 million children across the world out of school and 776 million adults illiterates, with two thirds being women.
Literacy, she said, was a human right, a tool for personal development, adding that “providing adults with access to literacy programmes and children with access to school are both fundamental steps in tackling poverty”.
She said the 2007 Chief Examiner’s Report of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) indicated that the average Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) pass rate of only 60 per cent achieved nationally over the past five years, was partly due to the inability of students to read and understand simple English.
“Sixty per cent of children in school are unable to read or write simple sentences after six years of basic education. This implies that Ghana cannot achieve the Education for All Goal by 2015.”
Mrs Duncan-Adanusah indicated that the high prevalence of illiteracy exposed millions of Ghanaian children to poverty and deprived them of a life of dignity and fundamental freedoms, as well as their effective development in the national development efforts.
The General Secretary touched on the issue of the single spine salary structure and warned that GNAT would not tolerate its delay and non-implementation.
“The delay in implementation is aggravating matters. Let it be clearly understood that no excuses of delay on non-implementation of the new salary system on the part of government will be tolerated,” she stated.
She said the “loud silence” on the implementation of the single spine salary structure seriously affected the stability of labour relations in the education sector and this was a “de-motivator” and GNAT viewed the government’s silence as nothing but lack of concern.
The Ga West Municipal Director of Education, Mr Daniel Budu Asiedu, commended GNAT for organising the programme.
The Ga West Municipal Chairman of GNAT, Mr Kwame Sakyi, said there was the need to prepare the youth for “this fast changing world”.