Grant tax relief for teachers in deprived areas

Page 43
March 19, 2009

A CIVIL society organisation, the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC), has called on the government to grant tax relief to teachers posted to deprived areas of the country.
That, it said, was to serve as an incentive to attract teachers, especially quality ones, to such areas to address the geographical disparity of teacher distribution, as well as improve educational delivery in the country.
“GNECC believes that the teacher is at the centre of education in Ghana for which reason we welcome moves by the government to motive them.
“We are also enthused by the recognition of huge disparities in teacher deployment along rural and urban lines,” the National Co-ordinator of the GNECC, Mr Leslie Tettey, said at a news conference in Accra last Monday.
The news conference was organised by the coalition to enable it to comment on some of the educational policies and programmes announced by the government in its 2009 budget.
Mr Tettey said the government should be realistic and give true meaning to its commitment in ensuring equity in the distribution of teachers in the country by mustering the political will to implement proposals which had seen no consideration over the past five years.
“Lessons from the past indicate that any other ad-hoc and ineffective incentive mechanism will only amount to a drain on scarce educational resources as it may not produce the desired outcome,” he said.
He said the coalition was also disturbed about the fact that 41 per cent of primary school teachers were untrained, and that most of those teachers were Community Education Teaching Assistants who had been engaged under the National Youth Employment Programme.
Mr Tettey said the GNECC was of the view that some key issues relating to the provision of quality education as provided by the government in the 2009 budget was commendable, and mentioned such issues as the abolishing of all unapproved levies and the provision of school uniforms for children in basic schools in deprived communities.
The coalition welcomed the government’s intention to subsidise the registration fees for Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and abolish fees in basic schools.
It, however, advised the government to ensure that terminal and promotional examination fees were abolished.
“Most children in deprived communities are unable to afford terminal and promotional examination fees of up to GH¢3 a term. These unfortunate children are prevented from writing examinations on the grounds of defaulting in the payment of examination fees,” Mr Tettey emphasised.
He said in the spirit of the Constitution, the coalition was calling on the government to expand its policy of distributing free exercise books to pupils in public schools to include private schools “to give true meaning to the public/private sector partnership to basic education”.
Mr Tettey, on behalf of the coalition, applauded the government for the increment in the Capitation Grant from GH¢3 to GH¢4.5 per child per term, saying that although the GNECC had advocated an increment of the grant from GH¢3 to GH¢5, “we consequently wish to reiterate the fact that the creation of a threshold for rural schools is very essential in ensuring equity in the disbursement of the Capitation Grant”.
The GNECC is a network of civil society organisations, professional bodies, education and research institutions and individuals interested in promoting quality basic education for all.