President of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Reverend Isaac Owusu, has expressed skepticism about the ‘one student, one laptop’ policy.

According to him, government’s failure in implementing the ‘one teacher, one laptop’ policy has created doubts about future laptop-related policies.

“The commitment of the government to honour its decision of meeting the provisions of the laptop is a challenge. Now if you look at even the basic school, government is supposed to provide textbooks for new curriculum at the primary, JHS and even including the secondary schools,” he said.

He disclosed that since 2019, the government has not made provision for some essential textbooks for basic schools.

Rev Owusu added that teachers are also yet to undergo training that will enable them implement a new curriculum in the basic schools.

“Since 2019, from KG1 to class six, the Ministry of Education together with GES has not been able to supply all the textbooks at the primary and KG level. The JHS level are also to start their new curriculum, teachers are yet to receive training to start the implementation.”

He went on, “now the teachers who are teaching the children in 2021, the vice president launched the one teacher, 1 laptop policy, now the promise was that within one year, teachers at the pre-tertiary level, that is from KG to secondary school were to receive laptops.”

“But as I speak to you now, teachers in primary and teachers in administration, they are yet to receive the laptop. So some of us should be surprised that the people that are implementing the new curriculum are yet to receive the laptop and then you leave those people and say now we’re moving to the new level, secondary school to give all students, first and second year students laptops each,” he said on Accra-based TV3.

To him, government should be focused on fulfilling earlier promises and some basic but crucial needs before making new promises.

The government, through the Ministry of Education, is preparing to replace textbooks with laptops in Senior High Schools across the country.

Speaking at

the 60th Anniversary celebration of the Hohoe Evangelical Presbyterian Senior High School, Dr Bawumia announced that textbooks and other teaching and learning materials would be installed on the laptops to be used during lessons on May 27, 2023.

Dr Bawumia said the initiative, which will solely be for first and second years in the secondary schools, would be implemented before the end of 2023.

This bold initiative has sparked a flurry of reactions on social media, with users expressing a mix of excitement, skepticism, and concerns about the implementation and potential impact on students.

After the Ghana Education Service asked the head and housemaster of the Ghana Senior High School to step aside for an investigation into an incident, the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has called for them to be reinstated.

General Secretary of GNAT, Thomas Musah who made the call on behalf of his outfit said GES should rather be concerned with paying Capitation Grant to teachers and subventions to schools than taking hasty decisions.

In an interview with TV3 monitored by AcademicWeek, he said Ghana Education Service (GES) should have acted with caution as it did not have a full grasp of the situation before sanctioning the headmaster and the housemaster.

“The difficulty I had when I heard the news was that will a headmaster go and put students in a toilet? Will they do that? Will a rational human being do that?” the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) member quizzed.

Thomas Musah Tanko told the Accra-based media outlet that “But upon a thorough investigation by the team that went there, we’ve realised that this is an old thing that the students do; that they go there to study.

So please Ghana Education Service (GES) should take it easy. We rather want to remind them that the Capitation Grant has not been paid for over two years now.”

Micah’s call comes after the Education Service asked the headmaster of Ghana Senior High School, Douglas Haruna Yakubu and Senior housemaster Sayibu Fusseini to step aside for using toilet cubicles as dormitories for students.

In a press statement shared with AcademicWeek, the management of the Education Service said it has directed the headmaster and Senior housemaster of GHANASCO to step aside to allow further probe into the matter.

“Headmaster and the Senior Housemaster have been directed to step aside to allow for further investigations into the matter by the Regional Director of Education and report back in two weeks,” the Ghana Education Service (GES) said.

Describing the situation as unfortunate, the management of the Ghana Education Service (GES) said the school declared 1,790 vacancies during the 2022 academic year computerised school selection and placement process.

“Only 1,467 students have enrolled. The school is expected to have excess capacity to even house extra 300 students. It is thus unacceptable to have students sleep in such a place,” the Service in charge of Education said in the release.

Okyere Darko April 18, 2023 

The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has stated that the Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, does not have the power to close down any pre-tertiary institution.

According to the association, the relevant provisions of the Pre-tertiary Education Act made it clear that the management of the pre-tertiary school system was the onus of the District and Regional Directorates of Education.

“Under Section 66 of the Pre-tertiary Education Act the Minister may give policy directives to the GES Council, therefore in our view it is improper for the minister to make the statement he made in Kumasi.”

The General Secretary of GNAT, Mr Thomas Tanko Musah, stated these in a press release issued and copied to the Gha­naian Times in reaction to the alleged threat by the Minister of Education to close down non-performing schools.

It said the attention of GNAT, had been drawn to the statement by the Minister of Education challenging Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) and Principals of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institu­tions to improve their educational outcomes or stand the risk of their non-performing schools been closed down as reported by some media.

It said the attention of GNAT, had been drawn to the statement by the Minister of Education challenging Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) and Principals of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institu­tions to improve their educational outcomes or stand the risk of their non-performing schools been closed down as reported by some media.

The statement said the Minister no doubt knew that the efficient and effective manage­ment of basic and senior high schools was the responsibility of the District Education Office and the Regional Education Office re­spectively and the TVET takes responsibility for the management of technical schools.

“Furthermore, the Minister is amply aware that it is the Ghana Education Service in collaboration with the Local Government Service which ensures that the District Education Office and Regional Education Office perform their assigned duties under the Pre-tertiary Education Act, 2020 (Act 1049),” the statement added.

It said the governing body of the GES was the GES Council as provided for under Section 10(1) of the Pre-tertiary Education Act. The Heads of Schools were under the GES and the GES in turn was under the GES Council.

The statement explained that the minister was not clothed with the power to threaten or hint the closure of any pre-tertiary insti­tution as carried by the story, not when the Education Service Council had advised such, and not when the ministry had not supplied the institutions with the critical logistics required to run effectively.

“Is the Minister not aware, that under his watch, the Capitation Grant for the basic schools is in arrears for two years and the subventions to the Senior High Schools in arrears for over three years? Thus from where comes the threat (challenge in his words), to CHASS and Principals of TVET institutions? Mr Minister, please come again!” the statement added.

The statement urged the Minister to advise the government to consider introducing a cut-off point for entry into the Senior High Schools, and the Technical and Vocational Training Institutions as a measure to urge students to advance academically.

The statement expressed concern about the categorisation of the schools and institu­tions into ‘A,’ ‘B,’ ‘C,’ and ‘D,’ with their con­sequent admission procedures of students with higher grades being admitted to the ‘A’ and ‘B’ schools, others into the ‘B’ and ‘C,’ and the ‘near do well,’ ‘fringes’ and ‘tassels,’ sometimes with aggregate 45 and above into the ‘D’ schools and so on.

“In this arrangement and compartmen­talisation, how do we expect the grade ‘D’ students to do well when we have already pronounced judgment on them, and the schools and institutions empty of the logistics with which to educate them,” the statement added.

The GNAT has, therefore, called for an overhaul of the system, and the schools and institutions equipped to improve their out­comes and avoiding the risk of closure.

BY TIMES REPORTER

March 16, 2023

Emmanuel Bonney Apr - 25 - 2023 

The General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Thomas Musah, has called for a stakeholder engagement to discuss how parents could contribute to the free senior high school (SHS) programme.

He said there was the need to consider parents’ input towards the effective implementation of the programme, especially in relation to prevailing challenges in the system.

Speaking on a wide range of issues in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra, Mr Musah claimed that the government subvention for free SHS was in arrears for over three years now.

“The free SHS is a very good policy; it is an excellent policy and we all embrace it and we think that it is the way to go, but the implementation is a challenge.

“The cash flow challenges are having a ripple effect at the basic education level, and as we speak now,  the capitation grant for basic education is in arrears for over two years,” Mr Musah added. 

Relevance

According to the general secretary, with any major intervention or project, there was the need to take stock and review ways to make the project better, and that the general consensus on the free SHS was that the government must allow parents to support the system

“Government, you cannot do it all alone, you can’t,” he added, saying, since there were challenges in the policy, it was only proper that the government went back to the people to seek their input on how to address them.

According to Mr Musah, parents, old students and other stakeholders were ready to help and, therefore, inviting them to get their input would be significant to the success of the programme.

He said building the country needed all hands to be on deck.

Mr Musah also said the call for the review was in line with the government vision as contained in its 2023 Budget Statement to Parliament. 

Savings

The general secretary further claimed that the cost of some flagship programmes of the government ranged between GH¢4 billion and GH¢6 billion and, therefore, reviewing them would result in some savings to the government.

“Flagship programmes, as indicated in the budget which the government has promised to review, should be reviewed now, those that we can suspend, let us suspend them, and those that we can cancel, let us cancel them so that we cut our cloth according to our size,” he said.

At the moment, Mr Musah said, almost every programme of the government was in arrears due to the lack of funds, and cited the National Health Insurance Scheme and Ghana Educational Trust Fund as some of the organisations that were being overstretched.

Source: MyJoyOnline.com  

The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) is challenging the Education Ministry and GES to publish the report on investigation into the ‘School Placement for Sale’ saga to help put matters to rest.

This follows the disclosure by the Public Relations Officer of the Education Ministry, Kwasi Kwarteng, that janitors and security personnel who were captured as middlemen in the investigative documentary by The Fourth Estate, are not employees of the Education Ministry, but that of the GNAT Hostel.

But reacting to the claim, the General Secretary of GNAT, Thomas Musah, said the allegation by Mr Kwarteng that a staff of the Association was identified as one of the brains behind the unfortunate happening, is inaccurate.

GNAT insists that no staff of the Association was involved in the scandal.

“No GNAT staff was involved. Let Kwasi Kwarteng come and tell us, let him come and tell us,” he stressed in an audio aired on Joy FM’s Midday news on Wednesday.

According to him, the Education Ministry must reprimand Kwasi Kwarteng for peddling falsehood.

“We demand that the Minister together with the DG must reprimand him, he must be rebuked. It is becoming the hallmark of Kwasi Kwarteng,” he said.

“And this one, we want to tell the Ghana Education Service that should they keep quiet on this particular one, we as an organisation will give them a response,” he added.

It would be recalled that in January, a Fourth Estate‘s investigative piece uncovered some rot in the placement into senior high schools.

The investigation discovered that instead of the resolution centre serving as a spot to correct certain anomalies, it was turned into a marketplace where officials linked to the placement executed their trade through a network of intermediaries, mostly security guards and cleaners.

Even though only two individuals – the Education Minister and the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES) – were the ones given access and passwords to approve protocol placement into Category A senior high schools, it has not stopped people from defrauding parents

Source: Myjoyonline