The Minister of Education Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh says the Akufo-Addo government has impeccable record of treating teachers better than the opposition National Democratic Congress.
According to Dr. Prempeh, the opposition NDC while in government between 2012-2016 churned out the worst educational policies ever since independence.
He noted also that the government at the time treated teachers with disrespect, a situation that he said affected the educational sector negatively.
Addressing a conference of the Volta Regional NPP Teachers’ Network in Ho on Sunday, Dr. Prempeh noted that the NPP is the only party that meets the aspirations and needs of teachers.
“In three and half years, what your government has done is unparalleled. Today, I won’t talk about what we have done in education, I’ll talk about what we have done with teaching and teachers. And I would like those who claim they are Professors and held the Ministry for four years before I got there, to sit by me so we could count our achievements one by one,” he said.
“…And for four years, there have not been a teacher demonstration or strike; that in itself should send NDC into the bush, if they were managing well, the car would not be parked near the bush. They never managed leadership, they exercised power but never were leaders,” he added.
The Education Minister also noted that the cancellation of the Teacher Training Allowance by the erstwhile John administration was the last straw drawn from the camel’s back.
“You were paid as a pupil-teacher the day you started training, you got paid till you finish -whether you pass your final exams or not. A certain government came and said let’s separate the colleges of education from the Ghana Education Service, so it led to the truncation of the pupil-teacher pay. That government in another time decided to stop the teacher training allowance, with the excuse that you’re a tertiary institution so qualify for student loan. That was not the problem because it was the truth but the teacher trainee who finished the college of education, who got posted, was not put on the payroll of the Ghana Education Service till you did you probation and your induction and your kominini and you got your completion before the district supervisor or somebody came to certify that you’re.
“So I know of teachers who taught for 20 years who never got onto the payroll because they never completed their exams in the training college. So the pupil-teacher pay continuing when they finish school was to enable the teacher have something to chew upon before he was fully absorbed into the teaching profession, when they cancelled it and stopped the teacher training allowance, they never thought about what was happening to the teacher, who went to Pusiga, Aflao, Wenchi or Tumu who knew nobody in that community, where that teacher was going to live, how that teacher was going to sustain himself till that teacher’s salary came; that is another form of disrespect to the teacher,” the Minister said
The Minister urged all teachers not to make a mistake by voting for John Mahama in the December polls since that would spell another doom for the teaching profession.
Source: Starrfm.com.gh/103.5fm/Faisel Abdul-Iddrisu
