NAGRAT poised to promote quality education-Regional chairman

The Eastern Regional Chairman of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Mr Godwin Awoonor-Yevu, has assured the Ministry of Education (MoE) and the Ghana Education Service (GES) that NAGRAT, like other teacher unions, is poised to do whatever is possible to promote quality education for the benefit of learners.

He said education held the key to national development, and that those in the education enterprise, most especially the NAGRAT members, were always ready to move a step ahead to promote quality education at the basic and senior high levels, adding “that is where we have the foundation.”

He, however, said the government which was the employer of the teachers must also be committed to its promises to the teacher unions so that there would be trust for each other.

The Eastern Regional Chairman made the remarks when he and his regional executive addressed the NAGRAT members at a general zonal meeting involving Yilo Krobo, Upper Manya Krobo, Lower Manya Krobo and Asuogyaman at Somanya in the Yilo Krobo Municipality in the region.

Collective agreement

Mr Awoonor-Yevu said NAGRAT had resolved to help the country to enhance the educational system, saying that the knowledge that the children needed was of paramount importance to the union but he urged the government to fulfill its part of what was agreed upon in the collective agreement to the letter in order to maintain a cordial relationship between the unions and their employer.

Technological era

He said it was time for teachers in classrooms to also practice the technology of the era by making use of laptops for preparation of their expanded scheme of work, and therefore urged the MoE and GES to come clear on the suggestion, as earlier attempt by the teachers in using print outs from the internet was thwarted.

‘’It is now time for teachers to also go paperless and use laptops to teach. We feel very sad for our colleagues at the basic level who are still using their teachers’ notebooks to write as many as eight to nine expanded schemes of work,” Mr Awoonor-Yevu suggested.

Other issues discussed on welfare included NAGRAT loans, introduction of NAGRAT-ABSA loan facility, NAGRAT-Methodist University agreement on further studies, critical illness support scheme, NAGRAT Fund and the Eastern Regional NAGRAT land project, among others.

A member of the association, Mrs Rebecca Enyonam Sottie, noted with concern that members of the association at the local level went through a lot of challenges to access services from the union, and therefore appealed to the leadership to decentralise its operations to the zonal level to ease their challenges.