Priest says new teachers should not be given automatic employment

Ho, Oct 30, GNA- Reverend Father Anthony A. Kornu, Administrator of the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Ho, on Thursday suggested that newly trained teachers should not be granted automatic employment because the practice account for the falling standards of education.

He said certificates should not be the only criteria for engaging teachers and called for thorough screening by the authorities in collaboration with district assemblies in order to recruit dedicated and committed teachers who are ready to work anywhere.

Rev Fr Kornu was speaking at the Volta Regional World Teachers' Day celebration in Ho, under the theme, "Teachers Opening Doors to a better World".

He said all inter-related actions of a teacher at any given moment should lead to achievement hence the need to employ good calibre of teachers to instil discipline in students.

Mr Kwasi Owusu-Yeboa, the Volta Regional Minister in a speech read for him, expressed resentment on teachers' unpreparedness to accept postings to rural and deprived areas of the region.

''The trend affects government's efforts at developing the human resource capacity at the community level.

"It is therefore my conviction that our teachers will now take up the challenge and accept postings to the rural areas", he said.

Mr Mawunyo Demanya, Regional Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), said the task assigned teachers to provide high-quality education lacks equal remuneration.

Mr Demanya appealed to the government to make funds available to the Ghana Education Service (GES) as its budgetary allocation could not settle some of the entitlements such as transfer grants, cars, motor and transport and travelling allowances.