Council Of State Member Calls For Incentives For Ghanaian Teachers

Dr. Ato Essumana two-term elected member of the council of state, has called for increase incentive for teachers and headteachers of deprive areas in the country. He made it clear at a public lecture on decentralization policy and practice in Ghana organised by the center for entrepreneurship education research and training of the methodist university. According to Dr Essuman some teachers in deprive communities are most often receive poor allowance bring out laxity and some sort of freedom not to work as expected of them, more especially if they find themselves in schools where there is no strong headmaster and lack of supervision and monitoring. He made mention of the fact that the cause of poor performance is the lack of proper and adequate educational infrastructure in the form of classrooms, school libraries, teaching and learning materials (TLM's), etc. "This does not create a very conducive and congenial atmosphere for the children to study. I feel ashamed, sometimes, when I visit some schools, especially in the countryside. It is a pity that that's the environment our children have to study in. You will notice a world of difference when you visit schools in big cities, more especially the private ones whose environment gives the children a perfect setting and the right environment for teaching and learning. But these students from two different educational environments sit the same BECE. What a pity!" The Way Forward "We must start taking about decentralising our education system small incremental actions and initiatives expecting to get exponential results later. Education cannot be wholly financed or supported by the central government alone. Everyone's contribution is needed in order to achieve desired results in education. No stakeholder can stand aloof. Everyone has a role to play. How then do we do this together as a people? We need enough capacity at the local level and as well collaborate with stake holders to minimize absenteeism Everyone is involved and must be found vigorously doing something to help better the standard of education in Ghana. All hands must be on deck: Government, parents, teachers, community, GES, Ministry of Education (Government). It is a collective decision and resolve that we need to take in order to reverse the downward trend in education" he said.