Between Akufo-Addo And John Mahama, Whose Governance Is Teacher Friendly? – Basic School Teacher Quizzes.
Baba Alhaji, a basic school teacher is asking the two dominant parties, the NPP and the NDC which of them has the welfare of teachers at heart.
This portal publishes in full the views of the teacher for readers to make informed decisions as the election day draws near.
FULL STATEMENT
The success of every country’s development, largely, depends on it’s educational strength of which teachers form integral part.
It is therefore prudent for every government to place maximum priority on welfare of teachers if the government want to succeed in the educational sector.
The treatment of teachers, usually, hinge on policies implemented by successive governments.
Therefore, teachers factor all these policies implemented by governments before they go to vote.
Interestingly, this year’s election, is a battle between an immediate past President and the current first gentleman of the land.
They are therefore going to be judged based on their performance in their stay in office.
It will be recalled, under the John Mahama led administration, series of maltreatments were meted out teachers which affected our educational system badly.
The then second Lady, Mrs. Matilda Amissah Arthur, is on record to have scolded the headmistress of Kukurantumi Presby Primary School on July 15th, 2015.
The headmistress Mrs Juliet Oppong, who was expressing gratitude to Mrs Amissah-Arthur for presenting five sets of computers to the school, appealed to her to communicate to the government to provide some “basic” items like logbooks for teachers and chalks which, she said, were in short supply in the school.
To the surprise of all Ghanaians, the Second Lady rather took the woman to the cleaners for this humble request.
This was her reply to that request “The Head teacher has shocked me…she said you lack chalk and log books…I am very shocked that you are today asking me about chalk…how much is a box of chalk…I won’t give you chalk today, I won’t give you chalk tomorrow.”
Nonetheless, under the same John Mahama led administration, three months pay policy structure was introduced for teachers.
What this meant was that, teachers who have taught for years shall be paid only three months salary arrears.
Unlike previously, where teachers were paid, in full, their amount of monies due them.
To add more, this same JM administration cancelled teacher trainee allowances.
To make matters worse for teachers, these same teachers were subjected to three months pay policy after you have posted the teacher to where his service is needed.
If this is not wickedness on the part of the government, what else could it be?
Sad of it all, the Minister under whose watch all these maltreatments were meted out to teachers has been appointed by JM as his running mate.
The move to appoint the minister as Veep for JM can only be seen in the eyes of teachers as blatant disregard for their profession as the success of the duo shall only mar the beauty of their job.
Fast forward in 2017, after the Akufo-Addo led government assumed office. A lot of things within the educational sector have changed to the advantage of teachers.
First of all, the infamous three months pay policy introduced by the previous administration has been scrapped. The government owe no teacher employed under it’s watch any arrears.
Again, teaching and learning materials are provided on time to facilitate the teaching and learning processes. It is therefore not surprising that, there hasn’t been a single news of shortage of TLMs from any teacher ever since the Akufo -Addo led government assumed office.
To add more to it, the Akufo-Addo led administration has successfully restored the teacher trainee allowances.
Recently, the government has also announced a stimulus package for teachers. With this package, every teacher is entitled to yearly allowance of ₵1,200 for various workshops to be attended.
STORY BY MICHAEL OFOSU-AFRIYIE, KUMASI.
