22 TEACHERS AND EDUCATION WORKERS AWARDED IN UPPER EAST

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
22 TEACHERS AND EDUCATION WORKERS AWARDED IN UPPER EAST

BY PETER ATOGEWE WEDAM                                                     July 11, 2012     
AG.PRO-UE/RCC

The Upper East Regional Director of Education, Mr. Paul Apanga has advocated to the Ministry of Education to urgently develop and institute a fee paying system in the country’s 38 colleges of education so as to allow for larger numbers of qualified senior high school graduates to train as teachers. He said the Untrained Teacher Diploma in Basic Education Programme should also be maintained in order to reduce the number of pupil teachers in the system.

Mr. Apanga was speaking at the 11th Upper East Regional best teacher and education workers’ awards ceremony for the 2010-2011 academic year which saw the presentation of assorted awards to 22 deserving staff. He explained that the fee paying system will allow for many more qualified students to gain admission into the colleges outside the government quota system, the students will then pay for the full cost of their teacher training. He further explained that after completion, the fee paying students will be licensed and given registration numbers and eventually employed by the Ghana Education Service.

According to the regional education director, the St. John Boscos and Gbewaa Colleges of Education both in the Upper East region have enough space to admit many more students but just like their sister colleges in other regions, they are compelled to admit not more than 280 students as per the government quota system. He however disclosed that, his office has received 477 newly trained teachers who will be posted to schools in communities across the region and commended district and municipal assemblies in the region for sponsoring the training of these teachers.

Mr. Apanga also bemoaned the poor pupil-teacher ratios in the region saying in most districts, one has just too much pupils to handle. For instance in the Garu-Tempane district, the pupil-teacher ratio is 129:1 while that for Bawku Municipal is 117:1. He appealed to district assemblies to institute a special awards scheme to attract teachers to their areas.

The Upper East Regional Minister, Mr. Mark Owen Woyongo in a keynote address noted that government’s intention for instituting the Best Teacher/Worker Award Scheme in 1995 was not only to award hard working and deserving teachers and workers in the education sector but to also give recognition to the valuable contribution teachers and non-teaching staff in the educational institutions. “It was also instituted as a motivational tool for teachers to work harder to improve on the quality of teaching and learning in our schools in order to achieve the objectives of the nation’s free compulsory universal basic education (FCUBE), especially those related to educational quality”, he added.

Mr. Woyongo said the scheme is organized every year at the National, Regional, Municipal and District levels, to constantly remind society of the important role teachers and non-teaching staff play in the nation’s socio-economic development. According to him, the provision of quality education in pre-tertiary educational institutions goes beyond what happens in the classroom and it is for this reason that government introduced the Capitation Grant, the Distance Learning Programme to help teachers upgrade their knowledge professional competences and qualifications and the Untrained Teachers Diploma in Basic Education for Pupil Teachers to help produce more professional teachers.

Other interventions by government include distribution of computers and exercise books to schools, the upgrading of teacher Training Colleges to Colleges of Education to award diplomas in Basic Education, the incorporation of Pre-school education as part of the Basic School System, provision of free school uniforms, the enhanced school feeding programme as well as teacher retention allowances to motivate and retain teachers and other critical staff.

Mr. Woyongo expressed the hope that the Municipal and District Directorates of Education will monitor the use of the grant effectively and efficiently to enhance educational quality in basic schools. He also urged the awardees to be motivate by their awards to work harder while it should encourage their colleagues to strife for recognition next time round.

The awardees got prizes ranging from double door fridges, 4-burner gas cookers, to several sets of 20” colour televisions.