Another Faux Pas

Prof Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang
The latest in the string of faux pas to visit the country is the disengagement of non-professional teachers. No week elapses without one of such wrong steps being taken by government – something which has given the official establishment an unenviable flavour.

Long before the official memo to that effect was issued, snippets of speculations about the pending action were in the air. While some thought it was too outlandish to be true, others did not think so, considering its negative impact on an already challenged educational sector.

It has eventually taken place, regardless of the glaring drawbacks.

Now the rural parts of the country, largely shunned by professional teachers unless unusually motivated, we can say, will be without teachers. These are parts of the country served by the so-called non-professional teachers who are compelled to stay in those parts for want of better jobs or because they await admissions into tertiary institutions.

In extreme, yet real, situations in some rural areas, JHS drop-outs teach in some primary schools; and this underscores the gravity of the challenges of these parts of the country. Filling the vacuum by this class of persons might not be the best in terms of the provision of quality education; but under the circumstances that is the only option available.

We appreciate the need to ensure that professional teachers handle pupils across the country. This is however the ideal situation; in a situation where the roll of teachers is lean – relative to the number of schools and their distribution countrywide –  policymakers should have thought twice before taking this leap.

The authorities would be doing a great service to education if they were to rather consider the ingredient of supervision and not such a hasty action which, as leverage, is non-existent.

No matter how many professional teachers are deployed to classrooms, little would be achieved in the area of quality when the supervisory role of head teachers and even the Ghana Education Service (GES) is loudly absent.

It is as though it is of no significance in the education provision chain.

Private schools post better results than their public counterparts, and the reason is because of the supervision by proprietors who need good results to boost the images of their schools in a competitive industry.

Disengaging non-professional teachers at this time would not be in the best interest of the provision of quality education. Let the authorities take another look at the action by observing critically the aftermath of the disengagement, unless the vacancies created by the ouster is being filled by professional teachers who would not pack bag and baggage and leave unceremoniously from especially the rural areas.

Another uncharitable footnote has been made in the chronology of education in the country and it is regrettable. Maybe the effects would prompt a rethink; just maybe, we hope.