High annual attrition rate of teachers worrying - GNAT
The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has expressed concern about the high annual attrition rate of teachers in the country, saying, it was affecting basic and senior high education.
According to GNAT, the attrition rate of teachers from the Ghana Education Service (GES) in recent times, especially in the rural areas, stood at approximately 7000 annually, describing it as “very high and alarming.”
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The National First Trustee of GNAT, Ms Abena Gyamera, made the revelation at the closing ceremony of the one week GNAT/Canadian Teachers Federation (CTF) in-service training for 350 teachers selected from all the GNAT districts in the Eastern Region at Kibi on Friday.
Worrying situation
She said GNAT being the leading teacher union in the country was worried about the very high annual attrition rate of 7000 teachers exiting from the service and that necessitated the need to call on the education authorities to put in the necessary measures to halt the problem.
She, therefore, appealed to the Ghana Education Service (GES) to motivate teachers to stay in the profession.
She added that : “Ghana’s development, we wish to note, hinges on well-educated and committed citizenry. And this can only be driven by teachers. So all incentives due them by way of increase in salary and payment of promotion arrears should be provided, so as to entice them to stay.”
Demand on teachers
The Deputy General Secretary of GNAT in charge of professional development, Ms Gifty Apanbil, who was the workshop director, said teachers were stakeholders in the delivery of quality education and called on Ghanaians to see teachers as partners and collaborate with them to achieve that goal.
The Eastern Regional GNAT Secretary, Mr Daniel Afadu, on behalf of the participants, lauded the National Council of GNAT for approving the budget for the workshop and urged the participants to take topics they treated seriously and also share the knowledge gained with their colleagues.
Arrears for teachers
The Deputy General Secretary of GNAT in charge of Finance, Mr Kwame Ofori-Atta, assured the teachers that the union was in dialogue with GES to pay the teachers all the arrears due them.
He appealed to the teachers to make Mathematics and Science friendly subjects to the children as the two core subjects were perceived by the children to be ‘difficult’ due to the way teachers handled such subjects.
The workshop prefect, Mr Emmanuel Boadu Dankwah, described the programme as very relevant to the classroom situation and appealed to both GNAT and GES to frequently organise such workshops to keep teachers abreast of current trends in the education sector.