GNAT frustrated by teaching input shortage
The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has expressed disappointment over the acute lack of basic teaching inputs for the education sector.
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It said the phenomenon was thwarting teachers’ efforts to deliver quality lessons.
The association said although teachers were central to quality education delivery, provision of appropriate resources to achieve the national goal remained a mirage and that was upsetting teachers in their quest to deliver effective lessons in the classrooms.
The Deputy General Secretary of GNAT, Mr Thomas Baafi, expressed these sentiments at the closing session of GNAT and Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF) collaborative in-service workshop for teachers in the Greater Accra Region on Friday.
It was aimed at updating teachers’ knowledge and skills in the light of new developments in teaching techniques and educational research, empowering teachers to develop innovations in teaching practice as well as helping weaker teachers to become more effective.
He said teachers were frustrated with the lack of basic inputs, accommodation and nonpayment of salaries and legitimate entitlements, among other things.
Basic inputs such as chalk, exercise books, notebooks for teachers, registers and even syllabuses are lacking in many schools, he said, adding: “Give teachers what they need to work.”
“No sacrifice is too great to make to provide the needed education inputs that will make for effective teaching; teachers’ legitimate entitlements should also be paid,” he said.
He said, while GNAT took steps to augment teacher effectiveness and efficiency, the association was also calling on the Government and the Ghana Education Service to provide “critical inputs” to foster effective lesson delivery.
He said recent developments in Ghana’s education sector seemed like policymakers conceivably “deny teachers and trainees of their legitimate entitlements as a way to make short-term savings.”
“Probably they think that in the current financial climate, cuts in education spending is the way to go, but we believe very strongly that all that the policymakers are doing is storing up for the future - and that will cost more,” he said.
Mr Baafi said Ghana needed to look at her priorities again and begin to sift the critical from the fanciful and give serious attention to the provision of basic education inputs, as well as legitimate entitlements of teachers for quality education delivery towards national development goals.
The President of GNAT, Mr Paul Agyei Boakye, said: "Policymakers and educational authorities have created an enabling environment for absenteeism and other unwarranted teacher behaviours that do not augur well for education in Ghana.
Fact sheet
The GNAT/CTF collaboration workshop, an initiative started over 20 years ago, witnessed 297 teachers participating, comprising 168 females and 129 males with resource persons from Canada and Ghana.
The training marked the end of the third of its kind in the year, following similar ones held in the Western and Central regions
