Gradually, partisan politics is destroying education in the country. Over reliance on political actors in formulating education policies is destroying the system. We’ve just been told that teachers are going to be examined before licenses are issued to them to qualify for practicing the profession. Such reckless and bogus policies will not only detrimental to the profession, they also pose a serious risk to high quality education. The sector is experiencing these challenges because of politicians refusal to listen to people have the technical know-how and the wherewithal.
Teaching is one of the best professions in the country, but teachers are most often crushed by bad and partisan inclined government policy. The current administration is gradually destroying teachers career and lives and ruining education. Who said we don’t have stipulated policies for assessing performance of teachers. Teachers go through series of assessment points before they are issued with a certificate to teach. I am surprised GNAT and other organizations are looking on unconcerned for the politicians to toy with this noble institution
We used to have the PROBATION SYSTEM where teachers after completion of the training course, are put on probation for two years where they are assessed by supervising officers before they are issued with a certificate or otherwise. After going through this system, they teach for five years and qualify automatically to the level of an ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT. A special exams is held for them to qualify them to the PRINCIPAL SUPT position then subsequently, go through an interview to qualify them to an ASSISTANT DIRECTOR position.
We also had the PART 1 AND 2 exams which was organised by the Cape Coast University. Trainees who fail the part 1 exams are made to repeat and write the exams again (resit) those who are referred in one or two papers get promotion to the next hurdle but are made to rewrite the refereed subjects.
Trainees who are unable to pass in the refereed papers are not issued with full certificate and will teach with no grade until they are able to clear the referred papers. This has been the arrangement from Adam and with this system, Ghana produced the best teachers on the continent so why this unnecessary and wasteful policy.
Nurses, Doctors, lawyers etc are issued with license to operate because of the nature of their work. One careless mistake by a nurse can cause death etc a careless mistake by a lawyer can land an innocent person in imprison. Have we considered the teacher and pupil ( student ratio) or we’ve hit the UNESCO mark. And what about the pupil teachers in our rural areas.
The PNDC government introduced the modular system to train pupil teachers and offer them ( Cert “B”) certificate and it was one of the concepts the administration used to reduce teachers deficit the country suffered as a result of the exodus of teachers to other western African states in the early 80s.
Then I heard that the period in the classroom is going to be extended. How? This is the reason why I have always advocated for the appointment of educationists to handle the education ministry. We are going through these reverses because of the partisan position taken by educationists in the current administration.
Many considerations go into formulation of policies to guide teaching and learning and one of it is the child’s ability to absorb what is taught in class and factors that can or may hinder proper absorption of what he or she is taught in class. Policy formulators know why they introduced two BREAKS, intermittent games outside class and other recreational activities. Activities in the private schools must not affect policies in our public institutions. Why were we practicing the shift system? Apart from enrollment issues, the tiredness, fatigue etc were also considered.
Source:EducationGhana.net