President of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Rev. Isaac Owusu has complained on the Ghana Education Service’s (GES) failure to consult the teachers before making changes to the reopening date.

This comes after the Ghana Education Service issued a statement announcing 25th of September 2023 as the new date for the reopening of secondary schools.

Speaking on Campus Exclusive this morning, he lamented on the failure of the Ghana Education Service to consult members of the Teachers Association in their decision making process.

“They did not consult us as a union before rescheduling the date. Well, that should have been the ideal situation but this is not the first time. You know it is a challenge that is confronting us as a people; when there are stakeholders within a particular jurisdiction a decision is about to be taken, at least the ideal way should have been to consult the teacher unions. But this thing  doesn’t normally happen because sometimes the [GES] feels that as an entity, they have the authority to carry out decisions without consulting other unions integral to the matter of concern.”

Reverend Owusu further urged the Ghana Education Service to ensure that the necessary resources are provided to facilitate activities in the senior high schools.

He also drew light on the effect of the reschedule on senior high schools across the country.

“Well certainly it will affect the teachers, the students and even the other stakeholders, the non -teaching staff. You know when you give a date for a reopening, every stakeholder prepares themselves to meet the set date. So if someone would have wanted to travel because he or she is aware that maybe on the 14th of September I must resume work, that person will cut off if there should be any traveling within that week. But if somebody would have wanted to travel maybe within that two days or a week and then later on and the person later on comes to find out that my reopening date has been rescheduled, you have also cost the person.”

First-year Senior High School and Senior High Technical School (SHS/SHTS) students are expected to return to their schools on September 25, 2023, as directed by the management of the GES.

The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), is advocating mandatory swimming tutorials for teachers posted to island communities.

The association believes, that will be an effective intervention for teachers to save their lives in the events of boat disasters and sustain the human resource base of the teacher’s front.

The leadership of Ghana’s largest teach­er union made the recommendation at a ceremony to present some life jackets to its members at Kudorkope in the Krachie East District of the Oti Region.

The first half of the year has recorded five separate incidents of boat disasters killing in excess of twenty people including teachers and pupils.

Faana in the Ga South Municipality, Kete Krachi and Atigagorme in the Sene East District are few of the Islands that have recorded tragic boat incidents this year.

In the Island communities, the use of canoes is the only means by which residents commute from one village to the other.

However, factors including excessive overloading of passenger canoes, non availability of life saving jackets, natural cause and other forms of human induced errors continue to pose threats to marine commuters on islands.

The situation appears to be dire in the Krachi East and West Districts of the Oti Region, as teachers and pupils risk com­muting on the Oti River to attend school each day on another island amidst bad climatic conditions.

Narrating his ordeal, a teacher at Ku­dorkope, Addo Prosper explained how he survived a horrific canoe disaster earlier this year in a quest to access money from his bank at Dambai, the Oti Regional capital.

He revealed that the islands were such that if you did not go to town early and return, by 12 noon all canoes providing shuttle services would have closed and you would be compelled to spend extra day or days in Dambai.

With terrifying flashbacks, he painfully narrated that he was eventually saved when the other three members aboard realised that he didn’t know how to swim and was fast drowning.

However, other teachers have been un­fortunate in similar disasters.

The Krachi West District alone has 46 island settlements but only 21 have schools in which trained teachers have been posted.

The GNAT has initiated steps to prevent death of its members resulting from boat disasters.

Consequently, the association as part of its welfare package has been supporting its members on the islands with life jackets.

Kudorkope hosted the brief event to present some 251 life jackets to GNAT member in 18 schools.

The gesture will also be replicated on other islands in other regions.

Addressing the gathering, President of GNAT, Rev. Isaac Owusu accused the Ghana Education Service (GES), of reneging on its responsibility to fulfil requirements of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, urging that the safety of teach­ers on islands were prioritised.

Rev. Owusu proposed to GES not to post teachers who had no experience in swimming to any island community with­out any form of training.

He urged the GES to procure the services of the navy to offer extensive swimming tutorials to newly trained teach­ers whose services were required on the islands.

On his part, the General Secretary of GNAT, Thomas Musah Tanko emphasised the achievement of the Sustainable Devel­opment Goal four which promoted equi­table provision of quality education for all by 2030 and called for swift interventions to break all barriers to education on island and other hard to reach communities.

He said “children born on the islands deserve better education because it is through no fault of theirs that they are born there.”

Source : Ghanaian Times                              

Date : July 3, 2023

President of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Reverend Isaac Owusu, has expressed skepticism about the ‘one student, one laptop’ policy.

According to him, government’s failure in implementing the ‘one teacher, one laptop’ policy has created doubts about future laptop-related policies.

“The commitment of the government to honour its decision of meeting the provisions of the laptop is a challenge. Now if you look at even the basic school, government is supposed to provide textbooks for new curriculum at the primary, JHS and even including the secondary schools,” he said.

He disclosed that since 2019, the government has not made provision for some essential textbooks for basic schools.

Rev Owusu added that teachers are also yet to undergo training that will enable them implement a new curriculum in the basic schools.

“Since 2019, from KG1 to class six, the Ministry of Education together with GES has not been able to supply all the textbooks at the primary and KG level. The JHS level are also to start their new curriculum, teachers are yet to receive training to start the implementation.”

He went on, “now the teachers who are teaching the children in 2021, the vice president launched the one teacher, 1 laptop policy, now the promise was that within one year, teachers at the pre-tertiary level, that is from KG to secondary school were to receive laptops.”

“But as I speak to you now, teachers in primary and teachers in administration, they are yet to receive the laptop. So some of us should be surprised that the people that are implementing the new curriculum are yet to receive the laptop and then you leave those people and say now we’re moving to the new level, secondary school to give all students, first and second year students laptops each,” he said on Accra-based TV3.

To him, government should be focused on fulfilling earlier promises and some basic but crucial needs before making new promises.

The government, through the Ministry of Education, is preparing to replace textbooks with laptops in Senior High Schools across the country.

Speaking at

the 60th Anniversary celebration of the Hohoe Evangelical Presbyterian Senior High School, Dr Bawumia announced that textbooks and other teaching and learning materials would be installed on the laptops to be used during lessons on May 27, 2023.

Dr Bawumia said the initiative, which will solely be for first and second years in the secondary schools, would be implemented before the end of 2023.

This bold initiative has sparked a flurry of reactions on social media, with users expressing a mix of excitement, skepticism, and concerns about the implementation and potential impact on students.

After the Ghana Education Service asked the head and housemaster of the Ghana Senior High School to step aside for an investigation into an incident, the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has called for them to be reinstated.

General Secretary of GNAT, Thomas Musah who made the call on behalf of his outfit said GES should rather be concerned with paying Capitation Grant to teachers and subventions to schools than taking hasty decisions.

In an interview with TV3 monitored by AcademicWeek, he said Ghana Education Service (GES) should have acted with caution as it did not have a full grasp of the situation before sanctioning the headmaster and the housemaster.

“The difficulty I had when I heard the news was that will a headmaster go and put students in a toilet? Will they do that? Will a rational human being do that?” the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) member quizzed.

Thomas Musah Tanko told the Accra-based media outlet that “But upon a thorough investigation by the team that went there, we’ve realised that this is an old thing that the students do; that they go there to study.

So please Ghana Education Service (GES) should take it easy. We rather want to remind them that the Capitation Grant has not been paid for over two years now.”

Micah’s call comes after the Education Service asked the headmaster of Ghana Senior High School, Douglas Haruna Yakubu and Senior housemaster Sayibu Fusseini to step aside for using toilet cubicles as dormitories for students.

In a press statement shared with AcademicWeek, the management of the Education Service said it has directed the headmaster and Senior housemaster of GHANASCO to step aside to allow further probe into the matter.

“Headmaster and the Senior Housemaster have been directed to step aside to allow for further investigations into the matter by the Regional Director of Education and report back in two weeks,” the Ghana Education Service (GES) said.

Describing the situation as unfortunate, the management of the Ghana Education Service (GES) said the school declared 1,790 vacancies during the 2022 academic year computerised school selection and placement process.

“Only 1,467 students have enrolled. The school is expected to have excess capacity to even house extra 300 students. It is thus unacceptable to have students sleep in such a place,” the Service in charge of Education said in the release.

Okyere Darko April 18, 2023 

The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has stated that the Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, does not have the power to close down any pre-tertiary institution.

According to the association, the relevant provisions of the Pre-tertiary Education Act made it clear that the management of the pre-tertiary school system was the onus of the District and Regional Directorates of Education.

“Under Section 66 of the Pre-tertiary Education Act the Minister may give policy directives to the GES Council, therefore in our view it is improper for the minister to make the statement he made in Kumasi.”

The General Secretary of GNAT, Mr Thomas Tanko Musah, stated these in a press release issued and copied to the Gha­naian Times in reaction to the alleged threat by the Minister of Education to close down non-performing schools.

It said the attention of GNAT, had been drawn to the statement by the Minister of Education challenging Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) and Principals of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institu­tions to improve their educational outcomes or stand the risk of their non-performing schools been closed down as reported by some media.

It said the attention of GNAT, had been drawn to the statement by the Minister of Education challenging Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) and Principals of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institu­tions to improve their educational outcomes or stand the risk of their non-performing schools been closed down as reported by some media.

The statement said the Minister no doubt knew that the efficient and effective manage­ment of basic and senior high schools was the responsibility of the District Education Office and the Regional Education Office re­spectively and the TVET takes responsibility for the management of technical schools.

“Furthermore, the Minister is amply aware that it is the Ghana Education Service in collaboration with the Local Government Service which ensures that the District Education Office and Regional Education Office perform their assigned duties under the Pre-tertiary Education Act, 2020 (Act 1049),” the statement added.

It said the governing body of the GES was the GES Council as provided for under Section 10(1) of the Pre-tertiary Education Act. The Heads of Schools were under the GES and the GES in turn was under the GES Council.

The statement explained that the minister was not clothed with the power to threaten or hint the closure of any pre-tertiary insti­tution as carried by the story, not when the Education Service Council had advised such, and not when the ministry had not supplied the institutions with the critical logistics required to run effectively.

“Is the Minister not aware, that under his watch, the Capitation Grant for the basic schools is in arrears for two years and the subventions to the Senior High Schools in arrears for over three years? Thus from where comes the threat (challenge in his words), to CHASS and Principals of TVET institutions? Mr Minister, please come again!” the statement added.

The statement urged the Minister to advise the government to consider introducing a cut-off point for entry into the Senior High Schools, and the Technical and Vocational Training Institutions as a measure to urge students to advance academically.

The statement expressed concern about the categorisation of the schools and institu­tions into ‘A,’ ‘B,’ ‘C,’ and ‘D,’ with their con­sequent admission procedures of students with higher grades being admitted to the ‘A’ and ‘B’ schools, others into the ‘B’ and ‘C,’ and the ‘near do well,’ ‘fringes’ and ‘tassels,’ sometimes with aggregate 45 and above into the ‘D’ schools and so on.

“In this arrangement and compartmen­talisation, how do we expect the grade ‘D’ students to do well when we have already pronounced judgment on them, and the schools and institutions empty of the logistics with which to educate them,” the statement added.

The GNAT has, therefore, called for an overhaul of the system, and the schools and institutions equipped to improve their out­comes and avoiding the risk of closure.

BY TIMES REPORTER

March 16, 2023