The Minister for Education, Haruna Iddrisu, has defended government’s decision to recruit 7,000 teachers nationwide, explaining that the move is guided by fiscal limitations rather than a lack of commitment to addressing teacher shortages.
Speaking at the launch of the 19th eLearning Africa Conference in Accra, he acknowledged that Ghana faces a significant teacher deficit but said financial constraints have restricted the scale of recruitment.
“There is a teacher deficit in Ghana. If resources were available, we should be employing and recruiting up to 50,000 teachers across the country,” he stated.
He explained that the Ministry of Education received clearance from the Ministry of Finance to recruit only 7,000 teachers with degree and diploma qualifications.
“The Ministry of Education received clearance from the Ministry of Finance to recruit up to 7,000 teachers with degree and diplomas. And accordingly, the process has been advertised in an open, transparent manner,” he said.
Mr. Iddrisu added that the recruitment process attracted over 40,000 applicants before the portal was closed to prevent overcrowding.
“And as the portal opened, when it got to 40,000, the Ghana Education Service instructively closed it in order that we didn’t have a stampede of numbers,” he noted.
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He explained that only the best-qualified applicants would be selected.
“So we take the best out of the 40,000… the best 7,000 of the over 40,000 applicants,” he said, adding that further recruitment would depend on additional financial clearance from the Ministry of Finance.
“We do have clearance from the Honourable Minister for Finance. We will do our best. We don’t want to have a stampede of it,” he added.
Source: Starrfm.com.gh
