General News of Wednesday, 2 June 2021

Source: www.atinkaonline.com

Govt hasn’t scrapped teacher motivation allowance – GES Dep. Director General

Kwabena B Tandoh, Deputy Director General, Ghana Education Service for quality and access Kwabena B Tandoh, Deputy Director General, Ghana Education Service for quality and access

The Deputy Director General, Ghana Education Service (GES) responsible for quality and access, Dr. Kwabena B Tandoh, says government has not scrapped the teacher motivation policy.

In 2015, the erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC) government said it had scrapped the teacher motivation allowance paid to members of the profession every term.

The allowance was levied on students at the senior high school level, but that will no longer be charged.

The then Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Education, Francis Gbadago, said the motivation allowance had outlived its usefulness, adding that other public sector workers such as doctors and nurses are not paid such allowances to be motivated to work harder.

“The purpose for which this teacher motivation fee was introduced has lost its value at the moment. Now we have teachers being paid a considerable amount of money as salary. We think that at this particular point in time, there is no need for teachers to paid teacher motivation anymore,” Francis Gbadago told press men.

Reacting to issues concerning teacher motivation at the Senior High School level, Dr. Kwabena B Tandoh, said monies are disbursed every year for the purposes of motivating teachers at the secondary level.

He revealed that in 2018 and 2019 government, disbursed GHS55m each year, to schools to support academic intervention to motivate teachers and assist the students.

"Government has not scrapped teacher motivation. In 2018 and 2019, government disbursed GHS55m both years to support academic intervention in schools. In 2020, schools were closed and so monies were not disbursed. This year’s fund is in our budget and it will disbursed for its purpose. GES is passionate about the motivation of teachers,” he added.