Minister for Tourism Arts and Culture, Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, has disclosed that the Ghana Education Service anticipates recruiting some 40,000 teachers and non-teaching this year.
Commemorating the ‘World Teachers Day’ in Sunyani at the Eusbett International Conference Hall, Mr Awal noted that the reason for the increase in teacher size in the country by GES is to prevent overcrowding in schools.
According to him, government is committed to ensuring that teachers are adequately taken care of to deliver in the classroom. This, he explained, is aimed at making “teaching and learning very proactive”.
The theme for this year World Teachers Day celebration is: ‘Teachers wanted, reclaiming teaching and learning for a human-centred recovery’.
“Government has seen the need to improve on the teacher-student ration at schools to avoid overcrowding. Since 2017, we have recruited 93,000 teachers at the pre-tertiary level. This year alone, the Ghana Education Service is hoping to recruit about 40,000 more teachers and non-teaching staff to further ease congestion in our schools. This initiative will help us reclaim teaching and learning for human-centred recovery.
“The pandemic has taught us a lot of lessons in our schools. In all this while, teachers have been very central to our initiatives approaches and responded to the pandemic… Government remains committed to our ‘teachers first policy’ in ensuring that our teachers… are fully skilled and supported to deliver quality learning accounts to support the government’s development aspirations”.
Mr Ibrahim Mohammed Awal
Celebrating Ghanaian teachers
Speaking on behalf of President Akufo-Addo, the minister for Tourism revealed that the theme for this year is “appropriate” in the “trying times we find ourselves”.
Known in Ghana as the ‘Teacher’s prize’, Mr Awal explained that the day is an occasion to celebrate Ghanaian teachers for their many sacrifices. He reasoned that government in pursuit of supporting teachers have implemented key policies such as the ‘One teacher one laptop’ policy.
“The role and importance of our teachers have become more heightened with the onset of COVID-19 where schools were closed and many parents came to terms to appreciating the enormity of teachers’ work. You all know teachers play a very significant part in the development of our human resource…
“We supported teachers in their continuous professional development policy… by way of professional allowances for them. And we’ll continue to provide the necessary support to ensure teachers quality suitable to meet the needs of our society. ‘One teacher one laptop’ policy is to help teachers prepare adequately and using the best practices. STEM education is the way to go now. This policy will help teachers do a lot of research to help bridge the gap as far as STEM education is concerned”.
Mr Ibrahim Mohammed Awal
Comprehensive teachers’ policy
The tourism minister expressed government’s appreciation to teachers for their contribution to the success of “free senior high school programs”. According to him, some “1.6 million Ghanaian students have benefited from the free senior high school program”.
Mr Awal emphasized government’s effort to empower teachers to better their social and professional lives in the country. He noted that the NPP government in collaboration with the Norwegian government set out to “develop a comprehensive teacher policy”.
He opined that the welfare, conditions of service and professional growth of teachers “have been factored in this policy”. As such, the policy will ensure the needed support is given to the Ghanaian teacher to “compete globally”.
“This project has established the Ghana Teacher’s taskforce which oversees development of the comprehensive teacher policy for Ghana.
“The policy shall influence the way teachers are trained, how they live their lives, grow in the profession and how they promote and ensure high attainment of learning outcomes. Also, the NPP government is working assiduously to produce teachers who can withstand the test of time through the implementation of the Ghana Teachers License policy”.
Mr Ibrahim Mohammed Awal
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