Government urged to give priority to classroom enhancement

Prof Richard Tuyee Awuah, Principal, College of Agriculture Education, University of Education Winneba, Mampong Campus, has appealed to the government to enhance facilities in the classroom in its bid to improve education delivery.

He said if a teacher recognized the classroom as a safe and convenient place with supportive facilities for teaching and learning, he would participate more in the management, administration and the improvement of the school.

Prof said this at the Asante Mampong Municipal/Sekyere Central District Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) Third Quadrennial Delegates Conference at Mampong on Friday.

The conference was attended by over 60 delegates was under the theme “New Direction to Quality Education: Motivation for teachers as a Catalyst”.

“When teachers have to work under conditions that are not conducive to work such as weak tables and chairs, in dilapidated buildings, under trees, in roofless buildings and with little resources to teach, they are not motivated to deliver.”

He said “pupils also demonstrate apathy to learning and the result is the erosion in quality education we are witnessing in many communities in Ghana today.”

Prof Awuah said the teacher was the pivot which quality education revolved around and added “though other resources may be available, without the teacher, reforms and the restructuring processes remain mirages”.

He said one key area that could hamper implementation of the new education reforms and consequently quality education delivery in the country was improper teacher management.

Prof Awuah said the vexed issues of denial of study leave to several qualified teachers and the ban on recruitment of those who have pursued study leave with their own resources needed to be resolved by the Ghana Education Service to the satisfaction of all stakeholders.

He said “these are flash points that do not augur well for the teaching profession as they reduce morale and even tend to dissuade prospective teachers from venturing into the teaching profession”.

GNA