NGO pledges to nurture teachers

Intellekt Ghana, a non-governmental organisation established to promote quality education in deprived communities, has said the government needs to take courageous decisions through policy implementation to reverse the fallen standards of education.

It said there was the need to bridge the gap between pupils in rural communities and their counterparts in the urban centres regarding the quality of education provided them.

Mr. Ken Kpodo, the Executive Director of Intellekt Ghana, said this at a press conference in Takoradi to announce an education programme dubbed: “Teach for Western Region”.

He said the NGO had trained some graduates who had passion for teaching in the Upper East Region and had decided to replicate that programme in the Western Region to promote quality education among basic pupils especially those in the rural communities.

Mr Kpodo suggested four thematic areas which needed more attention and these are recruiting the best senior high school graduates with strong mathematical background, reasoning skills, a sound conceptual grasp of science, strong writing skills and world-beating capacity for creativity and innovation.

They should be trained at teacher training colleges and later deploy them into rural basic schools.

He said this required sufficient initial preparation and continuous professional development including flexible, in-service training to impart effective and practical teaching skills.

Mr Kpodo said countries with high performing education systems had teacher-education programmes that focus less on the theoretical aspects but more on preparing professionals in clinical settings, in which they receive support throughout the teaching practice.

Mr. Kpodo called for improvement in assessment systems at the basic schools to ensure effective and efficient teaching and learning.

He said the NGO had trained a number of specialist teachers and deployed them into basic schools in deprived communities.