Koforidua, April 12, GNA – An Accra based legal practitioner, Mr James Agyemang Fokuoh, has observed that the policy of providing laptops to school children would not achieved the desired effect if the teachers who are supposed to help the students remained computer illiterates.
He appealed to the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) to enter into negotiations with the government to provide each teacher with a laptop to make more teachers computer literates.
Mr Fokuoh also called on heads of basic schools and their teachers to research into reasons for the poor performance of their pupils at the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) to help find solutions to them.
Mr Fokuoh said this when delivering the keynote address at the fourth Quadrennial Delegates Conference of the New Juaben Municipal branch of the GNAT in Koforidua on Wednesday.
The conference was being organized under the theme ‘education in crisis-the way forward’.
He called for the implementation of the education Act of 2008 which calls for the registration and licensing of teachers to enhance the professionalization of the teaching profession in the country.
The Deputy Eastern Regional Secretary of GNAT, Mr Samuel Cody, said the Association would no longer tolerate the situation where teachers are transferred without the payment of their transfer grant.
He called for the extension of the welfare package of teachers beyond death benefits and ensure that all teaches are registered under the National Health Insurance Scheme.
The New Juaben Municipal Director of Education, Mrs Docia Abban, explained that under the Ghana Education Service (GES), promotions are based on academic qualification and experience and not on academic qualification alone.
She advised pregnant teachers to abide by the regulations on maternity leave to have rest and deliver safely.
The Chairman of the function, Mr Amoako Yirenkyi, called for re-examination of the Junior High School (JHS) concept because many schools are not able to get the full complement of the required subject teachers.
He said that situation had resulted in teachers without the required qualifications being compelled to handle some subjects to the disadvantage of the pupils resulting in their poor performance at the BECE.
GNA