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Tag: teachers

  • Teacher trainees to feed themselves starting May 8 – PRINCOF

    The National Conference of Principals of Colleges of Education Ghana (PRINCOF) has directed that teacher trainees start to fund their own feeding from May 8.

    This directive is in response to the inability of Colleges of Education to make payments for food items supplied to them.

    According to PRINCOF, food suppliers who had continued delivering supplies to these Colleges of Education for months without payment have finally withdrawn their services till they receive the monies owed them.

    “Most Colleges now have food items that can last only one week if students are to be provided with three (3) meals a day,” PRINCOF said in a letter to the Education Minister.

    To this end, PRINCOF has suggested that:

    Teacher trainees to feed themselves starting May 8 – PRINCOF by The Independent Ghana on Scribd

    “Trainee teachers will be provided with two meals, breakfast and supper only for one week, from April 23 to April 30, 2022.

    “Trainee teachers from May 1 to May 8, 2022 shall be given lunch only.

    “After May 8, trainee teachers would be asked to provide their own meals until their feeding allowances have been paid,” it said.

    Meanwhile, food vendors are being encouraged to increase the quantity of daily meals they cook for sale to students.

    “These measures are meant to ensure that there is no disruption of the academic calendar,” it concluded.

    Source:myjoyonline.com

  • Asantehene urges government to improve condition of service of teachers

    Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has urged the government to put measures in place to improve the conditions of service of teachers in the country.

    He said teachers were so important to the development of Ghana but their current remunerations did not reflect their value.

    “While we will always urge moderation in the face of the national economic realities, we will nonetheless, urge policy makers to ensure that the status of our teachers truly reflect the level of importance we attach to their place in society,” he said.

    Otumfuo Osei Tutu II who made these remarks at the 6th Quadrennial National Delegate conference for the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) in Kumasi also urged teachers to avoid using strike actions as means to get the government to improve their condition of service. 

    According to him these strike actions rather affect the education of children who were not to be blamed for their condition of service.

    He, therefore, urged the teachers to employ negotiations strategies with the government that do not involve strike actions.

    “Obviously, those who really suffer are the innocent children. I urge you all to focus your minds on the need for an improved way for negotiations and consultations which will minimize, if not eliminate, any recourse to industrial action and the harmful consequences on our children,” he said.

    Source: www.ghanaweb.com

  • 8000 teachers fail licensure exams

    Over eight thousand teachers have failed the mandatory Licensure Examination (NTLE) representing 30.75% of the total number who sat for the test.

    A statement by the National Teaching Council on Monday, January 4 said 27,455 candidates sat for the exams.

    According to the NTC, 19,013 candidates representing 69.3% passed the exams with the remaining results withheld pending investigation.

    The council has called on all candidates to check their results from the NTC online portal at exam.ntc.gov.gh by using either their pins given during registration or their examination index numbers using their phone numbers.

    Candidates were also advised to print their provisional certificates after checking their phone numbers.

    The NTLE was introduced by the government in 2019 backed by the Education Act of 2008, Act 778, with the first-ever teacher licensure exams taking place in September 2018.

    Source: Starr FM

  • Global teacher status: Ghana ranked 2nd in the world

    Education Minister, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh has disclosed that Ghana ranks second in the world on countries that have streamlined teachers’ living conditions.

    Speaking in an interview with Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM’s ”Kokrokoo”, Hon. Opoku Prempeh, also called Napo revealed there was a survey conducted worldwide dubbed ”Global Teacher Status” among 35 countries and Ghana ranked higher.

    This achievement, he said, is due to the great initiatives by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his government for teachers.

    He said President Akufo-Addo, with a good heart for teachers, introduced a program called ”Untrained Teachers For Diploma in Basic Education” (UTDBE) to retrain pupil and untrained teachers, raised the status of teachers holding Certificate A, paid teacher-trainee allowances and also transformed training college into a college of education among other good works aimed at improving the lives of teachers.

    Napo noted that the second-ranking of Ghana on the world map is due to these initiatives and many more that the Akufo-Addo administration has established.

    ”Ghana is second after China worldwide on the Global Teacher Status”, he said.

    Source: Peace FM

  • Quality teacher education holds the key to national development – Minister

    The Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education, Prof. Kwesi Yankah, says the Ghanaian Child will be competitive globally by acquiring well-researched knowledge and skills for national development on the foundation of quality teacher education.

    “The biggest investment we can make as a nation is to give every child the right to good quality education … and the key to achieving this is hinged on effective and efficient management of teacher education,” Professor Kwesi Yankah said.

    Professor Yankah said this during the launch of the Colleges of Education Management Information System (CEMIS) at the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE), Accra.

    In his satisfaction for seeing the fruition of the system, the Professor said, “the development and deployment of CEMIS is no doubt a landmark in the journey to formulating relevant policies for transforming teacher development and management that will accelerate teacher growth and performance in Ghana.

    “This plan is to strengthen and improve educational planning and management, by implementing a comprehensive and integrated state of the art information Management System for the production of timely, accurate, and reliable information on all tertiary institutions,” he informed.

    Professor Yankah indicated that the outcome of such a plan was the development of the CEMIS for the administration, management, and delivery of teaching and learning in the various Colleges of Education, observing that, “the system will ultimately support policy formulation, analysis, planning, monitoring and evaluation of issues relating to the Colleges of Education.”

    The Minister of State said, in their core mandate to the Ministry of Education, the NCTE, through CEMIS, would be enabled to provide quality and effective advice and policies to government, because it would be timely in its delivery and have access to quality statistical data from the activities of the various institutions.

    The Minister also observed that the system would help NCTE monitor the level of adherence to approved policies, standards, and norms as promoted by the Ministry of Education.

    He said the Colleges of Education would now have a management information system, which would be capable of managing the various parts of college activities and provide a modern platform for data capturing and delivering on teaching and learning.

    “CEMIS will host e-library for use by all stakeholders with access,” he added.

    Professor Yankah, therefore, indicated that the other stakeholders in the education industry in Ghana would have “real time-limited data on the activities of the Colleges of Education.”

    The Minister of State was full of joy for the deployment of all functional features of CEMIS in all the 46 public Colleges of Education with training conducted for end-users in the colleges.

    “In addition to the CEMIS launch, we would also be updated about the progress that has been made in enabling Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning to take place in the public Colleges of Education, as well as the success of the Colleges of Education e-Learning Fund and Wi-Fi connectivity rollout, which will enable 36 colleges of Education to improve connectivity and capacity to support blended learning,” he said.

    He informed that the journey of totally transforming the teacher education sector of Ghana as an example for the rest of Africa “had just begun, and together, we will reach our preferred destination of having competent, qualified, … and fully licensed professional teachers teaching in our pre-tertiary education sector.”

    The CEMIS was implemented in partnership with the Transforming Teacher Education and Learning (T-TEL) Programme with funding from UKaid and support from Mastercard Foundation.

    Source: GNA

  • NAGRAT demands 25% increase in base pay for 2021

    The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) wants the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) to immediately begin negotiations on the base pay for 2021.

    The government in 2019 increased the base pay on the Single Spine Salary Structure by 12% across board for the year 2020.

    This increased the rate from GH¢9.10 per day in 2019 to GH¢10.19 in 2020.

    Speaking to Citi News, the President of NAGRAT, Angel Carbonu, who lamented the poor conditions of service of public sector workers, said the current economic hardships demanded a twenty-five percent increment for the 2021 base pay.

    “We are calling on the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission and the Public Sector Joint negotiations committee as a whole to quickly reconvene for us to negotiate the base pay for 2021. As a union, we will not shy away from indicating that looking at the economic situation and the challenges that Ghanaian teachers face we will negotiate the base pay for 2021 with a 21% increment. So NAGRAT is calling on all stakeholders to arrange a meeting to discuss this.”

    Mr. Carbonu also called for the review of transfer grants for teachers.

    “Somebody is just indicating that when you are transferred below 50 kilometres, you are not paid transfer grants. I do not know who negotiated that, workers did not negotiate that. Workers are transferred without accommodation packages. Somebody is introducing a certain strange clause. We want to find out who did and when it was because it seems workers are being taken advantage of.

    Source: citinewsroom

  • Pay 14,000 ‘ghost’ teachers in 15 days or we’ll advise ourselves Teachers to GES

    Leaders of teacher unions across that country have said they will “advise themselves” if the management of the Ghana Education Service (GES) does not pay some 14,345 teachers and workers of the Service whose names were deleted from the payroll.

    A joint press statement issued by the Ghana National Association of Teacher (GNAT), National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and Coalition of Concerned Teachers Ghana (CCT-GH) on Tuesday, 1 September 2020, said the teachers are also displeased because their salaries for the past three months have not been paid, even though they worked throughout the period.

    Describing the situation as “unacceptable”, the teacher unions have given the GES a 15-day ultimatum to fix the anomaly or “we have no other alternative than to advise ourselves”.

    Press statement from teacher unions

    The leadership of the teacher unions will want to show our displeasure and unhappiness to the unacceptable development where our 14,345 teachers and workers in the Ghana Education Service have had their names deleted from the payroll and have not been paid their salaries for the past three months, though evidence show that these teachers are at post and have been working.

    The unacceptable situation has come about as a result of a list developed and sent to the Controller and Accountant General Department (CAGD) by the Audit Service with the explanation that the affected teachers were not at post and are deemed as “ghost” teachers.

    We will want to indicate our indignation to the modus operandi of the Audit Service in declaring Public Sector Workers as “ghosts” without first resorting to the various service organizations for cross-checking and verification. A simple reference to the various Heads of Institutions of the affected GES workers to authenticate or otherwise, the presence of the worker could have avoided the embarrassment and pain caused these hard-working Teachers who are being made to go through pain they do not deserve.

    After several representations on the matter to the management of the GES, the leadership of the Unions were promised that the anomaly has been identified and that measures are far advanced to ensure that the affected teachers are paid.

    Unfortunately, the affected Teachers have not been paid their salaries, even for the month of August.

    The leadership and the entire membership of the Teacher Unions i.e. GNAT, NAGRAT and CCT-GH cannot and will not sit by for innocent and hardworking Teachers to be wrongly denied their legitimate salaries and compensation.

    We hereby call on the Audit Service to immediately withdraw that list of names given to the Controller and Accountant General Department and also ask the Ghana Education Service to immediately direct the payment of the salaries and arrears that have accrued to the affected teachers.

    We call on the management of the Ghana Education Service to ensure that the teachers are paid without delay.

    The leadership of the Teacher unions, GNAT, NAGRAT and CCT-GH is giving a 15 September 2020 ultimatum for the affected teachers to be paid or we have no other alternative than to advise ourselves.

    Source: Class FM

  • 2015 batch of teachers petition parliamentary candidate over delayed promotion

    A group of teachers who serve with the Ghana Education Service (GES) in the Asuogyaman district have petitioned the NPP Parliamentary Candidate for Asuogyaman constituency, Paul Asare Ansah, over their delayed promotion to higher ranks in the field.

    Having been appointed to serve in September 2015, the teachers insist that their promotion to higher ranks which was due in 2019 has overlapped, yet no explanations have been given to this effect.

    In a statement to draw the attention of the Parliamentary Candidate in the area, the 2015 batch of teachers claim they were due for promotion to Senior Superintendent I but after some education officers came round in June 2019 to collate all documents to facilitate it, not much has been heard thereafter.

    “We (2015 batch of teachers) were due for promotion to the next rank (Senior Superintendent I) in 2019. In line with this, the District Education directorate sent an information to all schools for qualified teachers to apply. We followed the due process as spelt out by the directorate, in June 2019, a team of officers from the District Education Directorate went to various schools for work inspection to enhance consideration and subsequent promotion to the Senior Superintendent I rank,” the statement read.

    Though the Ghana Education Service has requested that they reapply for the said promotion, the group of aggrieved teachers believe this will further delay the process. They fear the issue may not be duly addressed by the end of the year.

    They have therefore asked Paul Asare Ansah to intervene and use his highly revered office to help them receive their upgrading letters.

    “It is with this sorrowed heart that we are appealing to you, Hon. Paul Asare Ansah to intervene and use your highly respected office to find out why the District and the Regional Education Directorate are refusing to release the upgrading letters and kindly help us to receive them so that the unsuccessful applicants can now reapply,” they stated.

    Below is the full statement:

    Source: www.ghanaweb.com

  • Government increased supply of trained teachers to basic schools Opoku Prempeh

    Minister of Education Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh has indicated that as part of government measures to improve on the quality of basic education in the country, the number of trained teachers supplied to the schools have been increased.

    The percentage of trained teachers, he added, has also been improved to 88 per cent at the Primary level.

    He further said that since the current government took office in January 2017, it has employed a total of 66,357 teaching and non-teaching staff in the pre-tertiary sector as of the end of 2019.

    Touting the achievements of the Akufo-Addo administration in the educational sector on Tuesday, August 11, Dr Opoku Prempeh said: “To improve the quality of education, we have had to increase the supply of trained teachers to our basic schools.

    “Within the period, the pupil to trained teacher ratio has improved to 1:37 at the Kindergarten level and 1:33 at the Primary level in 2019. The percentage of trained teachers has also improved to 88 percent at the Primary level,” he noted.

    He added: “Further, financial clearance has been obtained to recruit an additional 27,367 teaching and non-staff, comprising 16,500 newly qualified teachers, 6,500 graduate teachers, 3,232 replacement staff and 1,135 non-teaching staff.

    “This brings the total to a staggering 93, 724 employed by the end of this year for pre-tertiary. At the tertiary level, we have since 2017 recruited a total of 6,176 staff,” he added.

    Regarding the Free Senior High School programme, he said: “To date, over 1.2 million students have benefited from the Free SHS programme, which has expanded access to secondary education and enabled an extra 400,000 students to enroll in Senior High School.”

    “…we recognize that access alone is not adequate in guaranteeing the quality of education we desire. For this reason, government is committed to ensuring quality and relevant education that will produce confident, skilled and global citizens who are ready and able to compete with their counterparts anywhere in the world.”

    Source: 3 News

  • Test teachers and students for coronavirus before school re-opens – Prof Nsowah-Nuamah

    Professor Nicolas Nsowah-Nuamah, President of the Dominion University College, has called for teachers and final year students to be tested for COVID-19 before schools re-open on June 15.

    He said the two weeks interval granted by the President should be used for proper planning, including COVID-19 testing, to ascertain their status in order to allay the fears of teachers, tutors, lecturers and students.

    Prof. Nsowah-Nuamah made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Monday in reaction to the President’s Directive on easing of restrictions on social gatherings.

    In his 10th national broadcast on measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 last Sunday, President Akufo-Addo said effective Monday, June 15, final year students of junior high schools (JHS), senior high schools (SHS) and universities will go back to school.

    All final year students of educational and training institutions which are being managed by ministries other than the Education Ministry were to return to complete their exit examinations.

    Final year university students were to report to campus on June 15, SHS 3 students together with SHS 2 Gold Track students were to report on June 22 whilst the JHS 3 students would report on June 29.

    All JHS 3 classes will comprise a maximum of 30 students, SHS classes 25, and university lectures will take half the class size.

    Prof. Nsowah-Nuamah welcomed the President’s decision to reopen schools for the final year students and underlined the need for school managements to improvise strategies to ensure smooth teaching and learning.

    Commenting on the psychology of students towards observing social distancing, he noted that it was risky because there was the tendency for students to relax.

    “The problem is once the President has spoken and eased the restrictions people tend to think that the problem has subsided and so the strict adherence of the social distancing protocols might not be observed by the students.”

    “You remember when the three-week partial lockdown was lifted what happened, it’s likely some students may behave in a similar fashion,” he said.

    Prof. Nsowah-Nuamah, therefore, called for sustained efforts of educating the students and teachers alike to observe the safety and hygiene protocols.

    Ghana recorded its first two COVID-19 cases on March 12 and since then Government had taken a number of measures to contain the respiratory disease.

    They include the closure of the country’s borders, setting up of screening centres at the various points of entry, creation of holding rooms for suspected COVID-19 cases, isolation and treatment centres.

    Other measures include closure of schools, churches, mosques, drinking spots and ban on conferences, festivals and sporting activities across the country.

    Government imposed a three-week partial lockdown on epicentres of the virus including Accra, Tema, Kasoa and Greater Kumasi.

    Also, government provided free water to all Ghanaians and subsidised electricity tariffs for all categories of consumers, as well as tax rebate for all frontline health workers and 50 per cent increase on their basic salary for four months and provided one billion stimulus package for businesses that have been affected by the virus.

    Source: GNA

  • Covid-19: March 2020 teacher licensure exams postponed

    The March 2020 edition of the Ghana Teacher Licensure Examination (GTLE) has been postponed due to the Covid-19 outbreak in the country.

    A statement released by the Council on Monday, March 16 said the candidates are to keep their vouchers and all required documents until the scheduled date.

    “The new date will be communicated as soon as appropriate (hopefully after four weeks)”, the statement indicated.

    This comes after President Nana Akufo-Addo in a televised address issued some emergency measures to be carried out nationwide.

    One more person tested positive on Tuesday, March 17, bringing the number of confirmed cases to seven.

    A tweet from the Ghana Health Service said, “This afternoon (17 March 2020); we have received a report from NMIMR that indicated one (1) more confirmed case as positive for COVID-19 in Greater Accra Region.”

    The patient is a 35-year-old male, and a Ghanaian citizen who returned to Accra from France within the past 14 days.

    Source:dailmailgh.com

  • Newly trained teachers demand postings

    Some qualified newly trained teachers are demanding their immediate postings.

    The teachers who graduated in March 2018 as well as re-sitters for September 2019, are asking the Ghana Education Service (GES) management to post all newly trained teachers “who cannot access their postings.”

    They have warned to picket from next week should the GES fail to post them or give them “any good news”.

    The teachers, who form the Coalition of Unposted Qualified Newly Trained Teachers Nationwide, want management of GES to immediately resolve issues with their postings.

    “We arguably believe that issues concerning our postings will be resolve as quickly as possible in other to avoid this massive picketing exercise which is about to take place” they said in a statement issued Monday.

     

    Source: 3news.com

  • Teacher beats 4-yr-old with mob stick till he fell unconscious

    A teacher at Crystal Heights International School in Nsawam, Eastern Region, on Friday, 21 February 2020, beat a 4-year-old kindergarten pupil with a mob stick until the little boy collapsed.

    The teacher got enraged after the little boy vomited while feeding.

    She ordered the child to clean the vomit and while at it, hit the KG1 pupil with a mob stick until the little boy fell unconscious.

    The victim was rushed to the hospital where he was resuscitated after eight infusions.

    The parents of the child have reported the matter to the Nsawam Police Station and are seeking justice.

    Speaking to Benjamin Akakpo on the Executive Breakfast Show (EBS) on Class91.3FM on Monday, 24 February 2020, the father of the victim advised parents to listen to complaints from their children when they return from school.

    The school authorities told producers of the EBS that they are aware of the incident and are currently doing their independent investigation so cannot speak on the matter immediately.

    Source: classfmonline.com

  • Return to the classroom or lose your salaries NLC orders Teachers

    The National Labour Commission has declared the strike by the three Teacher Unions as illegal and has ordered them to return to the classroom.

    Several pupils and students in public primaries and senior high schools have been without teachers since Monday when members of the National Association of Graduate Teachers(NAGRAT), Ghana National Association of Teachers(GNAT) and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers(CCT) laid down their tools.

    Read: Ignore your leaders, go to work GES board chair to teachers

    The industrial action is to pile pressure on government to pay legacy arrears accrued between 2012 and 2016.

    Speaking to Starr News, the Executive Secretary of the Labour Commission, Ofosu Asamoah said the teachers risk losing their salaries if they remain on strike.

    Read: Please return to the classrooms PTA begs teachers

    “The NLC finds the conduct of the three teacher unions not in conformity with the law because procedurally they did not comply with what the law provides in the declaration of a strike and therefore it is illegal. They have been directed by the Commission to go back to call off the strike and go back to the classroom while the GES works to pay whoever the arrears is due.”

    He said if the teachers fail to comply with the directive “the law will take its course. Illegal strikes are not paid for by the government, so illegal striking workers will not be paid.”

     

    Source: Kasapafmonline.com