A professor of the Distance Education of University of Cape Coast, Paul Dela Ahiatrogah, has underscored the need for the appointment to the position of Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), to be made from the service and not from outside the service.
He said the GES is a service of professionals who were capable of managing their own affairs, and, therefore, like other institutions where professionals are appointed to head such institutions, the same consideration should be given to the GES.
As the Guest Speaker at the 5th Quadrennial Akatsi District Delegates’ Conference of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Prof. Ahiatrogah said giving members the opportunity to occupy the topmost position to enable them to bring their experience on board to serve the interest of teachers was a good way teachers could assume their rightful place in the country’s transformation agenda.
Recognition
He said since promotion in the service was based on membership, it must also reflect in the highest position of the service, stressing that given the significant role teachers played in transforming the society, they should be given appropriate recognition for the value of service they render.
“My candid opinion is that the time has come for us to move beyond ‘best teacher award’ scheme. Let’s think of a scheme that would benefit more teachers than just a select few,” he indicated.
The continuous appointment of persons outside the service to head the institution, he said, was not in the interest of the service because it would take the person some time to study the system well before he or she could perform, arguing that “it is only the owner of a room that knows where it leaks”.
He blamed the Ghana Education Service Council, which has the duty to nominate a candidate, and the Trades Union Congress (TUC) for failing to nominate people within the service for the President’s consideration.
The conference
The delegates conference, which saw the election of a new executive to steer the affairs of GNAT in Akatsi, was under the theme: ‘Transforming society through education: The role of teacher education and the teacher in attainment of agenda 2030.”
The acting President of GNAT, Ms Philippa Larsen, stated that the world was changing at a very fast pace, therefore, as teachers, there was the need for them to change the way they did things knowing that “we are the pivot around which transformation and development evolve”.
GNAT, she said, has prioritised the professional development of its members through capacity building.
The Akatsi District Director of Education, Mr Joseph Yoga, bemoaned the increasing cases of male teachers having sexual affairs with their female students and cautioned them to desist from such acts, as the service would not hesitate to hand them over to the police when caught.
