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29.07.2015 Education

Teachers in two Upper Regions build capacities

29.07.2015 LISTEN
By GNA

Navrongo (UE), July 29, GNA - Mr Thomas Baafi, Deputy General Secretary responsible for Education and Professional Development at the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) at the weekend said teachers could not rely on archaic information and outdated methodologies to prepare students to be effective players in the technological world.

He therefore advocated for opportunities to periodically build the capacities of teachers to enhance their ability to perform efficiently.

Mr Baafi said this at the close of a five-day training session organized and sponsored by GNAT and its partner from the Canadian Federation of Teachers (CFT).

The training coincided with a donation of 2,800 text books by Sam Woode Publishers Limited valued at about GH¢ 140,000, as support to GNAT for basic and senior high schools.

About 320 teachers drawn from all districts in the Upper East and Upper West Regions received the booster training to improve on teaching and learning in schools.

Resource persons to the training included 27 Ghanaian tutors and eight Canadian professionals also sponsored by CFT with experiences in various fields.

Mr Baafi said the Association would not renege on its efforts to ensure that teachers were updated with skills, knowledge and inputs to deliver in schools, adding that the hallmark of the Association was to ensure that teachers performed at the highest level of competence.

Mr Baafi who was also the Course Director acknowledged various forms of criticism received by teachers because of low performance by pupils and the call by the general public to improve on education delivery in the country.

He assured the public that GNAT was keen to contribute its best to improve the situation by helping teachers to perform to attain Ghana's vision on education.

According to the Course Director, the needs of new entrant teachers had been neglected for long and indicated that the training was to help them to adjust in the challenges that confronted them after coming out of college and to whip up their enthusiasm in teaching.

He urged the trainees who also received certificates to let the training received reflect in their teaching and also ensure that pupils realized positive change in their performance. He also called on them to organize school based in-service training to enable other teachers in their schools to benefit from the skills they had acquired.

The training was the second of three sessions scheduled for 2015 with the objective to update teachers' knowledge in the light of new developments, research and technologies in the teaching profession.

The curriculum of the training comprised English for both Junior and Senior high Teachers, Mathematics for Basic and Senior High School Teachers, Science for Basic school Teachers, special Mathematics and Science for female teachers, Basic design and technology (BDT), social studies, French and Education Administration for basic school Heads.

Other components of the training offered new entrant teachers vital skills that aimed at integrating them into the teaching profession.

GNA

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