The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) yesterday launched the 2021 GNAT Week and the World Teachers Day celebration in Sunyani in the Bono Region.

Teachers in the country will join their counterparts around the world to commemorate the day, which falls on October 5, 2021, in Sunyani.

The event will be on the theme: “Teachers wanted: Reclaiming teaching and learning for human-centred recovery”.

And as part of activities lined-up for the day, all districts of the country will organise quizzes on the theme, play games, embark

on excursions, among other activities. The GNAT Week, which will be observed prior to the commemoration of the day, will be used to sensitise

the public to the plight of teachers in the discharge of their duties. 

The GNAT used the occasion as an opportunity to make donation to  50 brilliant but needy pupils with school uniforms, bags, canvas boots with socks, exercise books,

supplementary readers, pens and pencils to encourage them to stay in school.

The General-Secretary of GNAT, Mr Thomas Tanko Musah, said this year’s launch was unique, since it was the first time it was done outside Accra, the national capital.

He said the change in venue of the launch was to give opportunity to members of GNAT and pupils and students in the region to have a feel of the celebration and how

teachers contributed significantly to the socio-economic development of the country. Mr Musah further explained that the association decided to donate the items to

schools on the islands because of the difficulties teachers there went through because of the unavailability of teaching and learning materials.

The President of the association, Ms Philippa Larsen, said statistics from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) showed that

more than 25.8 million teachers were needed to provide every child with primary education by 2030. She said being the mother teacher union and major stakeholder in the educational enterprise in the country, GNAT would continue to play its role in ensuring that effective teaching and learning went on smoothly in schools. Ms Larsen, however, appealed for more government and public support to enable members to  discharge their responsibilities efficiently.

Source UNESCO    

The goal of the UNESCO-Korean Funds-in Trust ICT Transforming Education in Africa project is to improve learning outcomes and acquisition of 21st century skills (digital literacy, critical thinking, collaboration, communication, creativity, and innovation) through the appropriate use of information and communication technologies (ICT) by educators. The first phase of the project ran from 2016 to 2019 and focused on Mozambique, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe. Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Senegal have been selected for this Phase II.

Hybrid Emergency Remote Teaching Training for Teachers

In partnership with Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Centre for National Distance Learning and Open Schooling (CENDLOS), UNESCO through the Korean government supported Junior and Senior High school teachers to acquire digital skills in remote teaching to prepare them for future shocks and disruptions to teaching and learning. Overall, fifty-one (51) teachers representing 35 males and 16 females selected from all the districts in the Western region benefited from the training. 

Participants were taken through Microsoft Word and Presentation Software, Email for teaching and the use of Learning Management Systems focusing on Moodle.

This is the third of the pilot training series being organized in Greater Accra, Ashanti, and Northern regions in Ghana. The 3-Day hybrid Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) training was organized from 17-19 August 2021 in Takoradi in the Western region.

Some teachers expressed appreciation to UNESCO and partners for the opportunity to acquire ICT skills to improve learning outcomes for students.

In his concluding remarks, Mr. Thomas Musah, General Secretary of GNAT thanked UNESCO and the Korean Government for contributing to human resource development of Ghana by equipping teachers with ICT skills to enhance professional development. 

Source: Educational International               published 21 September 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken an enormous toll on education. Beyond school closures and lost learning, we have lost countless educators.

In the Indian province of Uttar Pradesh more than 1,600 teachers died of COVID-19. That is just one province in one country. In South Africa more than 1,650 teachers died of COVID-19 between March 2020 and February 2021.

In the United States, as of September 17, 2021, at least 1,116 active and retired K-12 educators and personnel have died of COVID-19. In Paraguay, a country with fewer people than Paris, more than 300 teachers have died.

The death of one educator is a tragedy for their family, students, and community. The death of so many educators around the world has an absolutely devastating impact on the profession and education as a whole.

Teacher memorial

In the lead up to this year’s World Teachers’ Day – October 5th, 2021 – Education International has launched a memorial website to honour and remember the

colleagues we have lost - www.teachercovidmemorial.org

Please use the website to share the stories of friends, colleagues, mentors who have passed away during the pandemic.

Tribute event

This World Teachers’ Day, Education International will host a virtual, global tribute event in their honour. On October 5th we will come together to remember and honour those we lost and who are

forever present in our minds. We will celebrate their life’s work, their dedication to their students, colleagues, and their profession and we will commit ourselves to taking their mission forward.

Mr Peter Tetteh Korda, Public Relations Officer, Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), has commended government for launching the "One Teacher, One Laptop" to aid effective teaching and learning in schools.

"The initiative is good and we welcome it because the way teachers teach has changed due to the outbreak of COVID-19," he said.

He said the pandemic had to a large extent decreased the face to face learning in favour of the online platform, adding that the initiative would help teachers to be in line with the technological space and deliver as expected.

Mr Korda said the laptop would help the teachers to do research and prepare their lesson notes with the aim of improving learning outcomes.

"We as a teacher association are interested in any initiative that will enure to the benefit of members and the students as well, "he said.

He said the initiative would build the needed confidence among the teachers to give off their optimum best and also improve the performance of the students for national growth.

Mr Korda appealed to the teachers to make good use of the laptops, urging them to use it for the intended purposes to enhance teaching and learning in schools.

On September 3, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia unveiled the "One Teacher, One Laptop" programme at Saint Mary's Senior High School (SHS) in Accra.

The Vice President symbolically presented four laptops to four teachers from Saint Mary's Senior High School to begin the distribution of the laptops.

Under the programme, every teacher in the public school from the Kindergarten to the SHS would receive a computer laptop.

Government will pay 70 per cent of the cost of the laptop while each teacher pays the remaining 30 per cent.

K A Technologies, a locally based ICT firm, is the manufacturer of the laptops.

Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia Friday launched the "One Teacher, One Laptop" initiative to facilitate lesson planning, teaching and learning outcomes.

Ghana would not be left behind in the fourth industrial revolution era and would leverage on ICT tools to accelerate socio-economic development, he stated at the ceremony in Accra.

 

Every teacher in the public school from the kindergarten to the senior high level would receive a computer laptop each.

Government would pay 70 percent of the cost of the laptop, while each teacher pays the remaining 30 percent.

Vice President Bawumia performed the launch of the "One Teacher, One Laptop" programme at the Saint Mary's Senior High School, in Accra.

He symbolically presented four laptops to four teachers of the Saint Mary's Senior High School to begin the distribution of the laptops.

A total of 71 teachers at the School received a laptop each.

KA Technologies Ghana Limited, a locally-based ICT firm, is the manufacturer of the computer laptops.

The TM1 computer laptops have store of e-books and users could access other relevant teaching materials electronically.

The launch attracted key stakeholders in the education sector, including teacher unions, directors of education, managers of educational institutions, teachers and students.

Vice President Bawumia said the initiative was at the heart of the President to improve teaching and learning performances towards attaining the Sustainable Development Goal Four.

He said teachers were indispensable to building the human capacity of the nation and government was committed to providing the requisite ICT tools and infrastructure to achieve education transformation and socio-economic development.

He noted that the Fourth Industrial Revolution was highly dependent on ICT skills and knowledge, therefore, the government would equip teachers to access teaching and learning resources to improve performance.

 

Dr Bawumia said the 21st Century required the blend of face-to-face and virtual teaching, especially with the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic, and that government would support those efforts by providing the necessary tools and infrastructure to achieve that vision.

GNA

Additionally, he said, the Government had provided free wifi to 722 senior high schools to ease access to learning materials online.

The Vice President said Ghanaian students abound with IT talents as two senior high schools - Prempeh College and Mamfe Methodist Senior High School - won Robotics and Coding World Championships recently.

Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, the Education Minister, in brief remarks, said the launch was in fulfilment of the government's promise to equip teachers with ICT tools to enhance performance and socio-economic development.

The Minister thanked the Ghana Education Service and teacher unions for collaborating with the government in making the programme a reality.

Madam Omolara Olakunmi, the General Manager of KA Technologies Ghana Limited, for his part, said education and technology were two key ingredients that held the future of the nation.

This was because education was a beacon of light whilst technology was an enabler that expanded the frontiers of knowledge to achieving greater heights.

She lauded the digitisation agenda of the government to making teaching and learning easier and improving the lives of Ghanaians.

Ms Phillipa Larsen, President of Ghana National Association of Teachers, on behalf of the teacher unions, thanked the government for fulfilling its promise to teachers, saying that the laptops would improve methods of imparting knowledge and lesson planning.

"It's a dream come true and would enhance performance in the classroom," she added.

Ms Larsen asked the beneficiaries to ensure proper maintenance culture to prolong the longevity of the laptops.