Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has attributed the challenges facing the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy to the government’s failure to adequately consult teachers during the policy’s design and implementation.
Speaking to Starr News at Nkurakan in Yilo Krobo municipality during the celebration of World Teachers’ Day observed on October 5 every year, Kusife Kwame Kafui, Assistant Eastern Regional Secretary of GNAT, specifically noted the overcrowded classrooms in Senior High Schools, where student numbers range between 80 to 100 per class, far exceeding the Ghana Education Service (GES) policy of 35 students per teacher.
He minced no words stating that as a result, classrooms have been turned into markets, making effective teaching difficult.
“With Free SHS our teachers are working very long hours they have no holidays yet their salaries remain the same nothing to compensate them for. If you look at classrooms now it is like a market, the numbers very large 80 to 100 pupils to one teacher meanwhile the GES’s own policy says that it should be 35 pupils to a teacher”.
Additionally, Kusife also stated that while the Free SHS policy has increased enrollment, it has placed immense pressure on teachers, who now overwork without time to rest but lamented that government has not implemented the collective bargaining agreement designed to improve teachers’ working conditions .
“Teachers in deprived areas as we speak in the single spine pay policy are supposed to enjoy 50% gross salary in addition to their salary but since 2010 has never been implemented. Teacher unions had it in their collective bargaining agreement but government has still not impmemted it”.
Speaking on the local theme for the World Teachers Day which is “Adding the Voices of Teachers towards a New Social Contract for Education, the Assistant Regional Secretary of GNAT,pointed out the consequences of not involving teachers in education policymaking process.
He said many policies introduced by politicians face implementation challenges or fail because they do not adequately involve teachers who are the implementers of the policy.
“Teachers views should be considered ans incorporated in educational policies. In Ghana, we all know that politicians have always come out with policies that are being rushed and we’ve all seen that such policies never see the light of day or inundated with lots of problems”.
“So what this day is talking about is that the teacher should be the focal point when we are designing policies for education because they are going to be the ones that are going to implement in the classrooms for the beneficiaries who are the students”.
Emmanuel Dzramado, Nkurakan Zonal Chairman of GNAT, called for an end to the politicization of education policies.
Dzramado expressed concern about shortage of teachers in the Nkurakan Circuit, which has left many students without adequate instruction.
“I have 40 schools in my local and when you look at this local most of the schools are in deprived areas. The problem we are facing now is posting of new teachers . All the villages here no teachers. How can a basic school example Aketebour have only three teachers. KG to JHS have only three teachers . Government must release positings to regions and districts. Postings done at headquarters is not helping us. At first we were not having teacher deficit in the villages as compared to now. Now all the teachers that come are in the cities”.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Kojo Ansah
