President of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Angel Carbonu, has raised serious concerns over what he described as the neglect of our basic education sector.
Mr. Carbonu, who is also the spokesperson for three teacher unions, NAGRAT, the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT), said since the introduction of the free SHS policy, the basic education sector has been relegated.
He was speaking at an engagement the three teacher unions had with former president John Dramani Mahama.
At the engagement, the unions presented a document about the challenges confronting the education sector to the candidate, so he will factor it into his manifesto.
In his remarks, Mr. Carbonu noted that the unions appreciate the free senior school concept, but the time has come for us to review the policy to make it work and achieve its intended purpose.
However, we have been relegated to the background of basic school education. When you go to some of our basic schools, the environment is so dilapidated, windows are hanging and dancing, and teachers are not motivated. And even the poorest of the poor are not encouraged to send their children to our public basic schools.”
According to him, due to these poor conditions in our public basic schools, parents are doing all they can to enrol their children in private schools, although they’re lacking the capacity to do so.
He said the time has come for the government to lay emphasis and put some spotlight on basic school education in Ghana because it is the foundation of education in any country.
Former President John Mahama, on his part, promised to work with the unions and other stakeholders in the sector to build a better and more inclusive education system for our children and the future of our nation.
He said he had a healthy policy dialogue with the unions in preparation for finalising the NDC’s manifesto.
He reiterated the importance of conducting an educational reform in my first 100 days in office and the integral role of teachers in national policy reforms.
He also assured the teacher unions that his administration will focus on adopting ‘first language’ as a medium of instruction from KG to Basic 3 and training more teachers in major local languages to facilitate teaching and learning at the basic levels.
To encourage reading at the basic level, the NDC plans to build more libraries and resume providing reading and textbooks for all basic schools.
He further added that the timely disbursement of the capitation grant to education directorates and schools will be a priority, as well as removing the capping and collateralization of the GETFUND and resuming the free sanitary pad distribution policy.
He also promised to prioritise the revival of abandoned TVET and E-blocks in our education infrastructure drive to decongest schools and improve the quality of education.
Source: rainbowradioonline.com
