Some head teachers of basic schools across the country yesterday confirmed to the New Statesman that the National Democratic Congress government, led by President John Dramani Mahama, has not released funds for the payment of their Capitation Grants since the payments of the last trench for 2013.
They are therefore seething with anger over the claims by the government, as articulated by the Second Lady, Matilda Arthur that they should be in the position to provide basic materials like teachers’ note books, log books, registers and chalk for their schools.
“How do they want us to acquire these materials? Out of our own meager salaries that cannot even meet our needs half way through the month?” an obviously angry head teacher at Goaso in the Brong-Ahafo Region queried when the paper spoke to him on phone.
“I have been a head teacher for a long time and what I can tell the nation is that we now have a government that is not serious about education. Sometimes, some of us seem to believe it when people say the NDC has a deliberate agenda to make a sizeable number of the population illiterate because they think when the people are educated they will not vote for them during elections,” another head teacher at Mpreaso added.
At a ceremony to present five sets computers and accessories to the Kukurantumi Presby Primary School, the head teacher, Juliet Oppong, appealed to the Second Lady to communicate to the Mahama government, the need to provide some basic teaching and learning materials, including log books, registers, teachers’ note books and chalks to facilitate their work.
Teachers across the country have been complaining bitterly about the fact that these basic items are now in short supply in the schools.
But in response, Second Lady Matilda Amissah Arthur expressed shock at the request by the school head, saying she would even feel shy to communicate that request to the government because the schools should be able to acquire the items on their own, after government had provide free uniforms and sandals for the pupils. “The Head teacher has shocked me…she said you lack chalk and log books …I am very shocked that you are today asking me about chalk? I won’t give you chalk today, I won’t give you chalk tomorrow…” she said.
The Second lady added: “Secondly, you talk about log books and school uniforms. I think we have spoilt you so parents don’t want to even by school uniforms…head teacher eii, find another means of helping yourself….i will even feel shy to go to Accra and call on the government to come and provide chalk…it would be very difficult for me to do so.”
Meanwhile, the comments by Mrs. Amissah-Arthur have received sharp condemnation from many well-meaning individuals and teacher groups, including the Ghana National Association of Teachers and the National Association of Graduate Teachers.
“It is very unfortunate because it is the responsibility of government to provide for the essentials need in teaching: it is a fact. It is government’s duty to provide chalks and so it is sad she made that comment. If she says a chalk is not so expensive and so we can buy then we will also ask ‘how much is chalk that government cannot provide?’ We can take what she said as the position of government because she is no ordinary person. What she said is not right with all respect to her,” Peter Tetteh Korda, PRO of GNAT, said yesterday.
Meanwhile, a former Director-General of Ghana Education Service, Michael Nsowah, has asked for pardon for the Second Lady because, he believes, the second most important lady in the country spoke from a position of complete ignorance.
He explained yesterday that page 48 of the FCUBE Document mandates government to provide the essentials like chalk, pens, log books, registers and others for schools, while parents are to provide school uniforms and shoes for their wards.
He said the necessary government interventions like free school uniforms for needy pupils are also captured in the FCUBE Document, but there is nothing like distribution of free shoes, adding: “This distribution of shoes is a misplaced priority and constitutes one of the wastages in the system.” The New Statesman
<<Print>>