“Teachers’ capacity enhanced with skills, improved welfare incentives” – President Akufo-Addo

According to Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President of the Republic, the distribution of laptop computers, improvement of skill set, and establishment of suitable welfare incentives have all clearly translated into improved effectiveness for our educators under the government’s new Comprehensive National Teacher Policy.

President Akufo-Addo claims that by implementing these policies and programs at both the pre-service and in-service levels, the Ministry of Education and the National Teaching Council have made sure to continuously produce and maintain the high caliber teachers required for the education transformation agenda.

He pointed out that the Ghana Teacher Licensure Examination, which the National Teaching Council (NTC) instituted as a step toward improving teacher quality and skill set, has ensured that graduates hired to teach have met the professional standards set by the Regulator and that they are fit for purpose in this crucial field.

Additionally, he added, the Ministry of Education has institutionalized a point-based ongoing professional development system through the NTC, ensuring that our instructors do not become irrelevant and stale in the constantly changing world of knowledge and skills.

In the same time frame, the NPP government, according to him, developed the Continuous Professional growth allowance to help teachers pay for Continuous Professional Development programs, assuring the success of teachers’ continuous professional development.

The President explained that “Introducing the GH¢1,200 Continuous Professional Development Allowance, paying an intervention allowance amounting to GH¢65 million for senior high school teachers for the 2022/2023 academic year, implementing categories two and three allowances for district and regional directors of education, and ensuring a thirty percent (30%) salary increase for all teachers in 2023,” will go a long way to motivate teachers to deliver more.

 

He also touched on the mass distribution of laptop computers to every teacher to improve the digital skills of teachers, adding that, “I have tasked the Minister for Education, personally, to ensure that those few teachers yet to receive their laptops join the overwhelming majority who have received theirs.”

President Akufo-Addo was addressing teachers and educationists at the 6th edition of the Ghana Teacher Prize, on Thursday, 5th October, 2023, held at the Ghana Secondary Technical School, in Takoradi.

These key interventions, he indicated is testament to the NPP government’s commitment to the ‘Teacher First’ policy which ensures that “our teachers, who are central to all education reforms, are fully tooled, skilled and supported to deliver quality learning outcomes to support our development aspirations.”

President Akufo-Addo also added that just as the “Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP), have trained 75,000 teachers in Teaching and Learning in a Digital Age” at a time when the use and knowledge of technological products and tools is a pre-requisite to 21st century teaching and learning.

Continuing, he said, “with the implementation of the Standard Based Curriculum, we have introduced Professional Learning Community Programmes, as well as Continuous Professional Development Days, in our schools to enable teachers take advantage and sharpen their skills.”

President Akufo-Addo told the gathering that, with essential focus on the benefits of critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication and digital literacy, all starts with a good teacher, the NTC, at the pre-service level, in collaboration with the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission, introduced the National Teacher Education Curriculum Framework in 2018.

“This resulted in raising the minimum qualification to teach in Ghana to a bachelor’s degree. Five (5) years after the implementation of the curriculum, steps are being taken to review it to keep pace with global dynamics. Undoubtedly, improvement of quality in the teacher education institutions is a priority to Government, hence our focus on improving infrastructure and other learning resources in our colleges of education,” he disclosed.

Source: Ghanatodayonline.com