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Non-performing school managers, teachers to lose jobs

Non-performing school managers, teachers to lose jobs

The Minister of Education, Dr Mathew Opoku-Prempeh, has stated that measures are being put in place to tie the continuous stay of school managers and teachers at work to the educational outcomes of their students.

He said the initiative to be rolled out within the shortest possible time was meant to improve monitoring and supervision in schools and also keep teachers in check to boost teaching and learning.

Dr Opoku-Prempeh was speaking at an event held at the World Bank office in Accra yesterday at which this year's Human Capital Index (HCI) was released.

The HCI measures the amount of human capital that a child born today can expect to attain by age 18.

The minister said there was no point for teachers, head teachers, circuit supervisors, directors of education and other officials of the Ghana Education Service (GES) who had a stake in ensuring quality education to still keep their jobs if they were found to have reneged on their responsibilities.

He said the Ministry of Education (MOE) was finalising processes to implement and enforce a robust monitoring system to track teachers’ performance in class.

"We are doing too bad in terms of education outcomes and this must be stopped. All directors of education at the regional and district levels, as well as the circuit supervisors and head teachers need to up their game if we want to improve learning outcomes.

"I am going to be hard and resolute in putting in place the right policies and measures to get the right thing done to improve education in this country," he stressed.

Teacher absenteeism

Dr Opoku-Prempeh further stressed that the situation whereby some teachers absented themselves from school or misused instructional time would not be countenanced.

"The worst thing is that in the public school system, the teachers are better trained and well paid than those in the private sector, but their results are too bad. They even prefer to send their children to private schools. I have sleepless nights over this as a minister," he said.

Teacher quality

The minister said the MOE was determined to carry through comprehensive policies to improve teacher education to ensure that the products of colleges of education were of a higher standard.

Dr Opoku-Prempeh urged those who were resisting the new directive for teacher trainees to do national service to rescind their decision.
"There will be rigorous training for teacher trainees so that they are well equipped to teach.

 So the decision to let all teacher trainees do national service as part of the training process will be enforced to the letter," he stressed.

Enforcement

For his part, a Deputy Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, reiterated that teachers and head teachers who failed to deliver quality education for three successive years would not be allowed to continue with their work.

“If you are a coach and continue to lose matches, there is no point keeping you and paying you.

 We want to get to that point where being a head teacher, circuit supervisor or director of education will not be seen as an indispensable position.

“There will be accountability checks from next year so that if your students fail their external examinations for three consecutive times, you are relieved of your duties,” he said.

The National Coordinator of the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC), Ms Veronica Dzeagu, said measures ought to be put in place to ensure fair distribution of teachers to all parts of the country.

She noted that the situation whereby teachers refused postings to hinterlands was inimical to efforts being made to bridge the gap in education between the rural and urban areas.

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